Ordinary is Sometimes Extraordinary
by CrystalKnightwalker
Summary: Fable Sun is an ordinary teenager with an ordinary life. After an accident gets her stuck in a world with crazy warlords, giant sea snakes, and people who defy the rules of reality, she just wants to go home. Thank goodness the people who can help her get there happen to be the crew of the future Pirate King. SI/OC Rated T for language
1. Enter The Ordinary Girl Fable Sun

**Hi Everyone this is a slightly edited version of the original first chapter I had posted. I'm currently attempting to edit all of my existing chapters and apologize for the lack of updates due to this.**

 **I'm hoping that you all aren't to mad at me, but this story is one of those where my inspiration comes and goes.**

 **Anyway I hope you enjoy my take on a self insert/Oc story**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

* * *

 _"10 minutes left in class I can do this"_

Her arm was already so sore though, and if she could only just close her eyes

 _Nope won't do it these notes will be on the test got to focus..._

Her eyes closed, head falling of the hand it rested on jerking her back awake. Looking around for a few seconds bewildered the girl sighed in defeat and put her head down on the desk with a quiet thump.

Math class, 7th period, we see a prime example of a teenage girl fighting through a severe case of sleep deprivation. Fable Deliah Sun, student at Freeman High School, was doing her very best to survive through the last period of the day, as her control on consciousness had begun to slip. _Great now I'm narrating my life in third person what next my lovely delirious brain._

"Fae! Hey wake up, Mrs. Godwin will notice you, hey!" I felt a gentle prodding in my side, I groaned in response to the hushed whispers too tired to form coherent sentences. "Fae wake up now or I'm going to tell your mom that you're the one who broke the computer!"

I struggled, blinking my eyes rapidly and lifted my head slowly to look at my awakener. I was greeted with the sight of my best friend Minerva looking down at me with worry in her blue eyes. I probably looked like a zombie, as much as I felt like one and I had no idea how Minerva managed to look bright and awake as always even when we were well into a very long math lecture.

"You wouldn't dare." My friends face blurred as I blinked rapidly, before putting my head back in my arms.

"Fae you can't go to sleep. This is all on the test Tuesday and you know I suck at explaining math."

I sighed, pinching my already red arm and focused back on the teacher who was now explaining how to write angle proofs. Even though I was awake my brain still felt like jelly and my hand mindlessly started to write down the segment addition postulate, not even stopping when I missed the line that was supposed to be written on. I caught Minerva's gaze in the corner of my eye, she had finished her notes(the overachiever) and was now looking at my paper in disgust.

"I have no idea how you get better grades than me in this class even when your notes are atrocious."

"Oh shush up," I grumbled "Your locker is probably a thousand times worse than my notes."

"Hey it's not that bad!"

"Puh-lease I'm not the most organized person in the world and even I can't stand the mess in there, one of these days I swear I'm going to burn everything in it."

Minerva just rolled her eyes and turned back to her paper, she was already so used to my insults that she had become a pro at ignoring me.

 **"Bring Bring Bring"**

"Oh thank god." I was jamming my binder back into my bag as soon as I heard the end of my suffering, tuning out Mrs. Godwin who was finishing up the class and saying something about studying.

I stood up slinging my black Underarmour backpack over my shoulder, filled with renewed energy and waited impatiently for Minerva to finish packing her bag. My friend stood up flipping long blond hair over her shoulder causing some of the boys behind her to drool. I rolled my eyes and mentally face palmed at their stupidity, as one of the braver ones called out her name.

I'm pretty sure his name was John. All I knew was that the kid was hella annoying in history, the one class I actually enjoyed, so obviously he was not my favorite person in the world. It was a fact that he had a thing for Minerva, and he wasn't as subtle about it as he thought. Praise the lord my friend had better sense than giving in to a douche bag like that. I stepped to the side and walked to the door before pausing to wait for my friend, giving the two space as he walked up to greet her.

John was... the jerk in ultimate frisbee who wouldn't pass to girls or would show off and take the game way too seriously( I mean come on it's frisbee the thing takes forever to hit the fucking ground, how hard is it really?). Basically he was one of those kids popular, but dumb, annoying, and had to be the constant center of attention.

Lots of girls thought he was the greatest thing, with his perfect blond hair and "Soulful" brown eyes. Personally, I didn't really think he was all that hot, but Minerva says it's because my standards are too high. She is totally right though, after discovering anime and the hot Bishounen that come along with it none of the awkward tenth grade boys could even begin to compare with a hottie like Gray from Fairy Tail, especially when he frequently loses his clothes showing off his washboard abs and wonderful shoulders (Oh thank you Hiro Mashima).

John wasn't the only boy drooling over my bestie though, especially with the way she looked. I let my mind wander standing there impatiently waiting for my friend to ditch her admirer watching her laugh at something he said her blue eyes twinkling like stars and head swinging back slightly, swaying long golden hair effortlessly.

I sighed, I wasn't going to say I envied my friend, really could care less about what guys in the real world thought about me, and Minerva really was the nicest girl you would ever meet. She once called me every night for a straight week when she'd heard I'd gotten a concussion just to check up on how I was feeling (I mean if that isn't a bestie for life, than fight me). It was just that sometimes I wished I could be half as good as her, talk to people effortlessly the way she did. I was friendly and not afraid of talking, but she just had a way of making everyone like her, even the teachers who for the love of god never replied to any attempt of friendliness I made.

Most people would look at us and wonder why on earth we were friends, I mean the knockout blonde with gorgeous blue eyes impeccable makeup and hair, who dressed fashionably in a cute sweatshirt from abercrombie, paired with leggings over sculpted legs and cute Adidas sneakers.

Compared to the nerdy asian girl who no one knew played three different sports, wore a pair of grey sweatpants, a green low neck t-shirt and combat boots to hide her huge calves, that were partly genetic and partly from years of playing soccer. A girl with average asian hair just a little past her shoulders, small light brownish eyes, talked way too much about anime, and did homework while listening to Nightcore. We were a pretty strange pair to say the least.

The thing that people didn't know and gave us something in common, is that Minerva is totally a closet fangirl who had seen more K-pop videos than Pretty little liars, and watched just enough anime to keep a civil conversation with a true otaku. She doesn't really like to tell people that, and I don't judge so we stay that way the odd pair, the beauty and the beast.

"So let me get this straight you want to come over to my house this Saturday?" Minerva's voice broke me out of my thoughts, and I could hear the obvious rejection coming, from the way her voice went up in slight disbelief at, "this Saturday."

As John nodded I fought hard to keep a straight face watching my friend prepare for a full out rejection.

"Sorry no can do I have plans this weekend. How about never, does never sound good to you?"

She didn't bother waiting for a reply turning away from him and walking to the door. As soon as she was right next to me I turned and followed her out of the door ignoring the calls of "BURNNNN." behind me, trying so hard not to break out in laughter. We finally got a fair distance away from the class before I couldn't hold it back anymore. People passing us in the hallways gave me funny looks and Minerva just rolled her eyes as she dragged me the rest of the way to our bus, laughing so hard it hurt.

When we sat down in our usual seats I had calmed down just enough to breathe again, Minerva just sat there in silence knowing the best way to shut me up was to ignore me.

"HA HA... Oh man did you see his face? He had no clue what hit him." My best friend smirked at that.

"He was asking for it I've turned him down like 5 times this week as gently as possible, guy just can't take a hint."

"Oh Mini, I'm so proud of you."

I patted her on the back

"I mean nice and sweet little Mini who can't even hurt a fly just dissed the biggest f***boy in our grade, it's nice to see even you can get pissed."

"You know that wasn't even close to me being pissed."

I shook my head smiling at my friends sass.

"How long have you been waitin to use that cliche line?" I asked.

"2 weeks" My friend chirped back happily.

The bus engine started with a spluttering sound and the whole vehicle started humming; the line of buses in front of us pulled out one at a time. I rubbed at my arm unconsciously in an attempt to soothe the dull throb of pain.

"I swear that's the 4th time this week that you've almost passed out in the middle of class, you even have bruises on your arm from when you pinch it."

I looked back at Minverva as she motioned at my reddening arm.

Our bus jerked into motion as I opened my mouth in reply.

"Hey it's not my fault, you know basketball practice doesn't end until 9:00 and we've had way too many projects due this week."

"We both know that you weren't doing homework last night."

I pouted, my friend knew me way to well, "It's not my fault that the Zou arc is starting, I need to find out what happens with Big Mom."

"You know Allison was telling me about the manga, and apparently..."

"Gah! Don't tell me, I don't want to hear it, LALALALA"

I pressed my hands over my ears before she could finish the spoiler.

"Okay, chill everyone is staring at you again."

I childishly stuck my tongue out at her before tentatively removing my hands and turned in my seat to face a bewildered junior, who looked slightly annoyed.

"Sorry." I smiled at him, he simply huffed and adjusted the volume of his headphones.

I turned back to my friend "You know I don't like spoilers especially since someone spoiled Ace's death at marineford. The whole watching experience was never the same." Really that whole thing had sucked, when Luffy had rescued Ace I'd held no hope of his survival, and then was left in a sobbing mess before he'd even died.

I gave her my dejected puppy look, making my brown eyes wider and pouting my lips.

"I told you that looking up funny anime memes on the internet was a bad idea. And don't remind me, I was the one who had to deal with your whining over the phone."

"Yeah, well how's sword art online going for you?"

The rest of our bus ride faded into a smooth conversation involving a rant about the horribleness of SAO 2, and our plans for the upcoming homecoming, (just because I was a fangirl didn't mean I fell completely out of the social loop) Minerva had been asked out by a sweet guy who was in her math class last year, so I was debating whether or not to third wheel with them.

Our conversation came to an end when we pulled to a stop at Minerva's bus stop, and I promised to call her after watching the new BTS music video Blood, sweat, and tears. Which apparently had a long convoluted explanation that I couldn't follow, but Minerva was such a huge fan of the group that I caved. (Plus J-hope was pretty hot)

I watched my friend exit the bus and gave her a small wave before the doors of the bus closed, the vehicle shuddered and continued on. The amount of people on the bus was significantly smaller yet we still had quite a way to go until my stop.

Without my friend to talk to I pulled out my phone. It was a white and silver 7, brand new and a gift from my dad for never having lost or broken my previous 5s. It also had a super cute teal and silver case that I had spent an hour at the mall looking for. I plugged in my pink skullcandy earbuds into my adaptor powered my phone on and preceded to my spotify songs and clicked shuffle play. I was always to lazy to actually create a playlist so I had to skip a couple before finding one that was good, after which I put my phone into one of the zip up pockets of my sweatpants. My ears were filled with soothing lyrics that I instantly recognized as Starving, Hailee Steinfeld's new song.

 _You know just what to say_

 _Shit, that scares me, I should just walk away_

 _But I can't move my feet_

 _The more that I know you, the more I want to_

 _Something inside me's changed_

 _I was so much younger yesterday, oh_

The world outside the window blurred, occasionally I caught glimpses of recognizable buildings and landscape.

 _I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you_

 _Don't need no butterflies when you give me the whole damn zoo_

 _By the way, by the way, you do things to my body_

 _I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you_

We pulled up to another stop and people shuffled by with their bags. The junior behind me also stood and joined the line giving me a funny look when he passed by.

 _By the way, by the way, you do things to my body_

 _I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you_

The bus pulled away and we continued on again, the gentle and constant forward motion was very calming.

 _You know just how to make my heart beat faster_

 _Emotional earthquake, bring on disaster_

 _You hit me head-on, got me weak in my knees_

 _Yeah, something inside me's changed_

 _I was so much younger yesterday, ye-eah_

 _So much younger yesterday, oh, yeah_

There was just one more stop left before mine.

 _By the way, by the way, you do things to my body_

 _I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you_

I smiled as we passed a vietnamese church that was only a few minutes away from my neighborhood, you could see my stop in the distance, it was a straight shot from here on.

 _Na-na-na-na_

 _Na-na-na-na_

 _The more that I know you, the more I want to_

 _Something inside me's changed_

 _I was so much younger yesterday_

The song ended the final twinkling notes of the song fading off as the bus pulled to a creaking stop door swinging open. Shifting my bag off of my lap I swung it over my shoulder and grabbed my navy blue swell water bottle with my other arm. Walking down the aisle and down the incredibly steep steps (Like seriously steep like, if you miss your dead steep). A few other people exited behind me and everyone started their individual walks to their houses.

I was about to turn and begin my own walk home when I saw something odd. An old man was walking across the intersection at a leisurely pace.

Normally an old man walking across the street wasn't to weird, but my bus stop was right where a major road and smaller one intersected. Walking across the smaller one was easy since the only people on that one were people trying to get into or leave my neighborhood. The problem was the major road, it was technically two different ones separated with a thin strip of grass yet slightly connected where the small road cut across. There was always a ton of cars on the big roads since they led to the more developed part of the area. There was no crosswalk or lights and normally people don't walk across either of the roads, he was probably just some homeless guy that had taken the brand new metro to this area.

I turned around, none of my school mates had noticed the mysterious man, many were already quite far away and I shrugged it off the guy would be fine. I heard the soft haunting melody of a piano fill my earbuds before lyrics flowed in shortly after. I loved this song it was the lullaby cover of Reluctant Heroes from Shingeki no Kyojin by AmaLee my favorite anime cover artist.

 _It was like a nightmare_

 _And it's pain for me_

 _Because nobody wants to die too fast_

 _Remember the day of grief_

 _Now it's strange for me_

 _I could see your face_

 _I could hear your voice_

I started forward walking slowly my drowsiness coming back to me after the long bus ride, and the soothing music in my ears only sped up the process.

 _Remember the day we met_

 _And it's pain for me_

 _Because nobody wants to die too fast_

 _Remember the day we dreamt_

 _It's pain for me_

 _I could see your face_

 _I could hear your voice_

 _ **"Maybe I could finally watch one punch man now that I'm caught up with One piece?"**_

I let my mind wander as the slow pace of walking lulled me into a daydream state tuning out the rest of the world.

 _ **"I don't know though I kind of want to read more fanfic about ASL, Ace is such an angsty yet adorable kid."**_

I sighed in disappointment, why couldn't all guys be like anime characters, You had strong, sexy, and cool Zoro, Chivalrous, gentle, and fiery Sanji, and even childish, lovable, and adorable characters like Luffy.

 _Can't look back_

 _They will not come back_

 _Don't be afraid_

 _It's time after time_

 _So, once again I'm hiding in my room_

 _The peaceful times are what make us blind_

 _"See you can't fly if you never try" you told me oh, long ago_

 _But you left the wall outside the gate_

 _And more than ever, it's real_

 **"Screech"**

There was an incredibly loud screeching that broke me out of my trance like state. Even with my headphones I could hear the horrified scream. Whipping around my mouth fell open in shock.

The stupid old man was crossing the main street, and he hadn't even waited for the light to go red. Cars screeched as they swerved violently to avoid him it was a miracle that an accident hadn't occurred yet. Was the stupid Geezer blind!?

I saw a bus one of the public ones painted in bright red and yellow barrel past one of the cars who had swerved to avoid the man. The bus driver didn't seem to be paying attention his head wasn't even facing the right way as he seemed to be yelling at one of his passengers. The scream had come from one of the girls on my bus, she was further away and watching a couple of guys race back towards the bus stop, yelling and screaming for the old man to move.

I barely even registered the metallic clanging my water bottle made when it hit pavement my legs already in motion to try and prevent the inevitable. Racing forward my movements heightened by the rushing adrenaline. I had always been a fast sprinter a fact I was very proud of on the basketball court, but I'd never run as fast as I was now.

"MOVE!"

I screamed waving my arms running forward, I was the closest to the old man and was already out across the first street.

 _Honk! Screech! Thwump!_

I darted in between the racing cars watching the bus and man come closer and closer.

I reached the grassy strip in between the roads my sneakers squishing into the soft ground momentarily before being lifted out quickly. The bus driver finally seemed to notice, but by now it was to late and I saw him desperately push on the brake eyes wide with terror. It screeched down the road and every step I took seemed like it was in slow motion.

The old man finally looked up as the bus screeched down the road. Instead of facing his impending doom or freaking out in any way, his eyes met mine. Bright blues, swirling greens, electric yellows sparked, and blood reds shaded the background. His eyes had no pupils and I felt like a spark of electricity had raced through my veins when I looked into them.

It was too late to pause though, to late to stop there was only one option left. I didn't even hesitate as I ran forward my feet briefly ghosting across the pavement the weight on my back from the backpack seemed so heavy and breathing seemed to slow, My heartbeat pounded in my ears

 _ **So cliche it's just like the movies,**_

 _ **My god brain shut up, now is not the right time!**_

I focused again my body was still moving in the right direction even if my brain was wandering away like a lost Zoro. My hand made contact with the old man I wasn't very gentle with my push, but I'm sure he had other things to worry about at that time. I turned and the bus was way too close to me right in front of my eyes and all I could hear was the soft, lyrical words of Amalee before everything went black.

 _Sing for the reluctant heroes_

 _Oh Give me your strength_

 _Your lives are too short_

 _Sing for the reluctant heroes_

 _I wanna be brave like you_


	2. Waking up Where?

**Second Chapter Yay!**

 **Shout out to pubipanda for writing my first ever review. You don't know how much that meant to me, and thank you so much.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, just the weirdness that is Gild, Sylvie, and Fae**

 **Updated: 3-17-17 HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!**

* * *

 _Everything is so dark,_

 _I Can't see anything...oh that's right I'm dead._

 _Wait what!?_

My eyes shot open, heart racing I looked around, I was lying down in a pitch black space, couldn't see anything in front or next to me. Raising a hand I looked at it perplexed waving it in front of my eyes. The appendage was still visible.

 _Okay what!?_

I might fall asleep sometimes in class, but was still a straight A student, and know for a fact that light does not work that way.

"Where am I?" My voice shook with fear as I sat up slowly looking for anything in the dark space.

"Am I dead?" Don't know if I was expecting an answer from the darkness, maybe from spirits of the dead, God, Hades, the devil? At this point any of them would do.

 _Wait dead?_

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

 _Wait calm down I might just be in a coma... or this was all just a bad dream I mean I've certainly had weirder._

Thoughts raced through my head and I stood up shakily before pacing in circles and breathing really hard. Raising the hand again,eyes focused in on the tan skin. Little lines marred the skin in horizontal strokes and there was a slight raising right where the knuckles and joints were. It was far too much detail for an atypical dream.

 _Well only one way to be sure._

Before I could second guess myself I swung back with the raised hand

SLAP!

"Oww!" The stinging in my right cheek confirmed this was not a dream.

 _Oh great I'm dead, Mom is going to kill me for not coming home._

Oh god mom...

My parents were still probably waiting for me to come home not knowing what had happened to their daughter. Dad sitting in the family room working on his tiny desk in front of the T.V, being the first to greet me with a "Hey Fae". Mom from upstairs insisting he use my full name, and Cole my little brother giving me a nonchalant acknowledgement from his video game, as our little dog Pebbles scrambled and skittered across the wooden kitchen floor to jump on me with excited yips.

I would never get to see any of them again and Minerva would be stuck without her third wheel for Homecoming, I fought the urge to cry.

 ** _"A wish has been made and must be fulfilled."_**

Jumping up in shock, I landed very unsteadily due to the lack of visible ground. A voice, silky smooth and strangely melodic, startled me out of my thoughts.

"What was that, hey is someone out there?" I frantically looked around the dark for the origin of the voice.

If someone was here with me, then maybe they could explain what the hell was going on.

 **"A wish to a soul who feels unimportant, but just maybe they will see the worth in every life, even one's own."**

 _The heck kind of mumbo jumbo is that?_ I screamed internally as I processed what the voice was saying.

"Hey! What do you mean unimportant? Am I dead, where do I go?" I questioned out loud.

 **"Get to the end, the last stop, to return"**

"Last stop?" _This voice is insane where am I supposed to go, what stop, a bus stop?_

 **"A good soul deserves a reward, try not to die."** The voice continued ignoring my questions.

"Wait die, aren't I already dead?"

Before I could break out into an angry rant about cryptic answers, my vision blurred and my head swam.

 _What the hell is going on!_

Was my last thought before everything turned black.

 **-o-**

"Swish swish swish"

 _It's so warm_

"Caw Caw Caw."

"Three more minutes please." I mumbled swishing a hand in the air to ward off the wake up call.

"Gah!"

A sharp pain in my forehead caused me to shoot up. I blinked, was I on sand? White seagulls that had been picking at me scattered into the air at the sudden movement and in front of me for as far as I could see was blue pristine ocean waves, lapping at a white sand shoreline.

I stood up quickly giving my body a self pat down. I felt alive, My back ached from the weight of my backpack, and I was still wearing my jade necklace.

"Where am I? I'm pretty sure Fairfax Virginia doesn't have beaches." I muttered under my breath turning boots crunching in the sand as a flash of pink caught my attention.

 _My headphones?_

hand closing around the pink cord I followed it to my zipped pocket.

 _No way_

I unzipped my pocket and hallelujah, I pulled out my phone. I pushed the home button and typed in my password.

"How do I have wifi but no bars?" I questioned out loud

The battery was also doing something weird, and instead of the little bar being Green it was a rainbow of colors.

I scrolled through my contacts selecting mom's phone number before bringing the phone up to my ear.

"Sorry the number you dialed is unavailable right now please.."

"Damn it" I cursed at the phone in my hand resting the urge to be dramatic and chucking out into the sand.

 _Ok calm down Fae take in your surroundings._ I took a deep breath.

Listening to my subconscious I did a quick 360. I was on a tropical looking beach probably an island if the climate and fauna was anything to go from, but who knew it could be Florida for all I could tell. I turned again squinting my eyes, In the distance I could see the peaks of houses peeking over palm trees, they seemed to be domestic in nature with shingled roofs but, I couldn't tell from the distance.

A sudden idea struck me. If I have wifi doesn't that mean I also have GPS? I looked back at my phone exiting the phone app and scrolling to google maps waiting excitedly for the surroundings to load. I'm pretty horrible at reading maps, but in this situation at least it could tell me if I was still in America. The map finally loaded and the image appeared... I cursed myself for zoning out during geography.

My google maps had always been a little glitchy and I literally could not tell a mountain from a city on the shitty app, but I definitely knew blue was water. Looking at the image I felt like screaming at the never ending blue that surrounded the smallish chunk of land I was standing on.

 **East Blue**

The screen labeled the ocean that surrounded the land mass and I stared blankly at the name. I'm pretty sure I've never heard an ocean named that I mean it wasn't like I flunked my geography test, just took me two tries to get down all the states...

The map besides displaying too much water for my liking had labeled one small town or city (who could tell) on the little circle of land that was actually more of a kidney bean shape.

 _Cloud town_

The name was interesting if anything, I was used to towns named after famous old dudes, which tended to produce some very funky names like, Longfellow. If anything Cloud town just sounded way to ordinary.

I rolled my shoulders back, reveling in the crack they made as joints popped and cracked. I looked back up to where the roofs were visible over the trees.

Steeling myself for the long walk ahead I hoisted my backpack adjusting it so it was comfortable, before taking the first step in what would be a very long hike.

 **-o- Time skip**

I raised an arm to wipe away the sweat collecting on my forehead. Curse my low tolerance to heat. Why couldn't I be like my little brother who never sweated, even after running around in the sun for an entire day.

I had been walking for what felt like hours and the sun had started to set creating eerie shadows in the trees. The landscape had changed a while back from the sandy palm tree beach, to packed dirt, home to snaking roots of low mangroves. I was getting more frustrated by the second as time drew along, and my sour mood wasn't helped by the numerous hidden tree roots or errant flies.

"BZZZZZZZZZ"

I froze body tensing at the sound as it reacted to fear. Eyes darting back and forth searching for the source of the sound, green brush and moss covered tree trunks was all I could see. A blur of movement caught my attention and I bit back the urge to scream like a five year old.

It was bigger than the ones back home and with snipping pincers coming from its beady head. It's wings beat fast creating that cursed sound of doom. Suddenly it lurched in the air nearly touching my nose.

Every ounce of control left, as I jumped up, and screamed. Running away from the creature, I screamed and waved my arms around in the air, as I attempted to escape the terrifying creature with black and yellow stripes.

"I hate Bees!" I screamed as it continued to chase me. I crashed through the edges of the tree and kept on running

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Thunk!

I ran smack dab into something squishy. Due to Newton's laws of energy (Science nerd, I know) I ended up flat on my butt letting out a little yelp at the sudden pain that raced up my backside.

"Oh little lady are you okay?" a gruff gravelly voice spoke above my head, I looked up to be greeted with the image of a very large man. He wasn't fat rather just very bulky and he had a slight blush to his cheeks, his uncoordinated attempt at helping me stand indicated the guy was more than just tipsy.

"Yeah I'm fine." I took the man's hand and stood up again.

"You sure kid, you raced down the road screaming bloody murder." The man lazily asked the question with a hint of concern.

I coughed heat racing to my cheeks.

"Yeah sorry thought I saw something in the woods." I lied through my teeth and avoided the man's eyes.

"I understand missy we got some crazy critters out there you had the right idea." He said seriously.

I nodded solemnly at his words to tired after the run to register the danger I had just been in. Turning around I tried to get my bearings, I had to continue to search for Cloud town, Ugh the houses in the surroundings were blocking my view...

"GAH!"

I processed the houses along the cobblestone street I was now walking on. I felt like facepalming at my own stupidity, this lack of awareness was going to end up getting me killed.

The man had been startled by my sudden yell and looked at me in a quizzical way.

"Are you sure you're alright missy, It's getting kind of late don't you have somewhere to be?"He asked

I opened my mouth in preparation to answer him and then paused.

What could I say? Hey I got hit by a bus earlier and I woke up on the beach, could you possibly tell me how to get back to America? Yeah that sounded as looney as I thought it would. I probably stood there for half a minute with lips slightly parted as my tired brain struggled to keep up. I was tired to the point of having a dizzying headache, starving, and even though I wasn't dead there was still lots of aches and bruises that made me feel like I had been hit by the bus after all.

"Do you know anywhere I could stay the night?" My own answer surprised me, but logically I knew it was the right move. The way I was now I wouldn't really be able to process any information much less act on it unless I had a full night sleep and some food in my stomach.

"You a runaway missy?"His question threw me of guard.

The man seemed entirely less drunk than he did a moment ago, his piercing black eyes were accentuated by his raised eyebrow.

"Actually quite the opposite, I can explain later as soon as I get some food in me." I smiled in a way that I hoped was reassuring.

He looked me up and down taking in the dirt caked on my boots and sweatpants, the scratches along my arms and cheeks, and possible rat's nest in my hair before sighing.

"Sylvie probably has the place open, you can get some food there."

He turned wordlessly gesturing at me to follow. I gripped the straps of my backpack and hurried after him.

 **-o-**

The man led me down the streets of the small town, by now the sun had gone down and dusk was upon us, the street now illuminated with street lamps. Bone tired now, each step hurt and I was so close to passing out on the street. I stubbornly kept my focus on the back of my guide watching it sway back and forth with his drunken movements, (his state of sobriety changed faster than lightning).

"Ooph!"

For the second time that day I crashed into the man. I didn't fall flat on my butt this time seeing as how I had been previously walking at a snail place, but that didn't mean I wasn't annoyed at my guides unwarned stop.

"We're here." My rant was cut off before it started by the man as he gestured at the building in front of me.

I blinked, the place was certainly an old fashioned looking structure, with two stories and red painted walls. It had 5 windows three of which were for the second floor, and were slightly smaller looking than the two on the first. Brown saloon doors marked the entrance to the establishment and above it hung a wooden sign with the black painted words Tiger's Tail.

My guide walked forward and pushed the saloon door open before disappearing into the building. I hurried after him stepping into a small bar, I paused feeling a little uncomfortable in the environment. There were empty tables set up each looked wiped down and the bar itself was recently cleaned. A rack filled with bottles and bottles of amber colored liquids lined the wall behind the wooden bar . I'd never really been in bars before, and the things that scared me (even in my sleep deprived state) was the giant scratches in the wall, the chunk that looked like it had been sliced off from the left corner of the bar, and were those bullet holes?

"Oi Sylvie you here, Sylvie!"

The man, I just realized that I didn't know his name, was seated at one of the stools at the bar.

"Oi Sylvie I know you're here you old bat, your service isn't this shitty c'mon serve me before I get sober again." He drawled

"SHUT YOUR TRAP GILD OR I'LL SHOVE YOUR DRINK UP YOUR ASS" an angry woman crashed through the doors at the side of the bar her face the epitome of a devil. She had grey hair tied back in a ponytail and although she possessed a weathered face of age, it didn't make it any less frightening. She was wearing an apron over her outfit which consisted of leather pants and a purple T-shirt.

"Yeah Yeah." The man, Gild waved his hand nonchalantly unaware of his approaching doom.

I flinched at the look the angry woman was giving him, I swore she looked three seconds away from beating him to death before she let out a sigh, and the tension from her body faded.

She started moving to the bar reaching for a glass below, scooping some ice into it and then reached to one of the many bottles of alcohol behind her opening it pouring it and then sliding the drink into Gild's waiting hand.

"I should poison you for your rudeness." she deadpanned.

"Awww you wouldn't do that Sylvie you love me to much."The man smirked.

She snorted and I chose that moment to clear my throat. Her eyes shot up to me, her eyebrow raised in question was the only other reaction I was able to get.

"You better not be cheating on Carla again Gild." She didn't even bother addressing me, turning back to her customer.

"WHhhaaaT?!" I spluttered out.

"Ew Sylvie that's gross the girl is only a few years older than Hannah. I'm not that much of a pervert." Gild retaliated to the accusation a childish whine in his voice.

"Just had to check all my bases." She looked back up at me. "So girl was there something you wanted because no matter what people say about me I do not serve minors."

"No mam I was just looking for a place to spend the night." Dad's voice rang through my ears, _"Remember Fae manners and kindness get you farther than any threat or tough act. People like friendly well behaved people."_ Apparently Dad was right seeing how the harsh looking woman was now faintly smiling.

"Hmph at least you've got more manners than this sorry drunk, but I don't help runaways."

She turned away from me to scrub the bar signaling the end of the conversation. _O hell no_ I thought I was way to tired to bother with social cues. Sorry Dad

"Look lady I apologize in advance for my temper, but I have been awake since six a.m.!" I stalked forward slamming my hand into the bar "I'm lost tired and starving with no clue what the hell happened to me, and to set it all straight I'm the exact opposite of a runaway!" I continued, pretty much yelling by the end of the rant.

The verbal explosion caused Sylvie to turn back towards me and Gild to put down his mug. Suddenly very self conscious, I fell under the stares of the two adults, resisting the urge to shift back and forth where I stood.

"Kid where you from?" Gild's voice was serious and lacked the drunken whine from before.

"Fairfax, Virginia" I answered robotically.

"Virginia?"Gild raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah I assumed you'd know American states since you speak English." I shrugged.

"Kid I don't know what your talking about, but I've never heard about America."

Sylvie's input scared me half to death. Unless she'd been living under a rock there was no way she couldn't know about America I mean even without my bias view on the country, we were a major superpower and more than half of a continent. The only way not knowing America was possible was that this island was a technology dead zone.

Come to think of it I didn't see a TV in the bar, or a phone the closest thing to it was a giant snail wearing a funky rig...

"Holy crap a giant snail!"

I jumped back my backpack knocking into a chair that made a screeching sound as it scraped against the wooden floor. My arm was raised to point at the purple polka dotted mollusk.

"Woah girl calm down, you act like you've never seen a transponder snail."Sylvie said amusedly.

Transponder Snail...

 _Oh god_

The words clicked in my mind, everything spun around me as recognition rose up in the back of my throat like bile. Stumbling back to the bar I slammed my palms on the surface before falling onto a stool.

I couldn't process the worried voices that swirled around my ears.

"Oh god, Oh god." I repeated like a mantra.

"Kid you okay?"

"This is a joke right?" I whispered.

"A joke? Brat did you hit your head or something?" Sylvie's voice was filled with annoyance yet her hard face had softened.

 _There's no way I couldn't be there it doesn't exist._ My mind screamed.

"Where... am I?" I stuttered.

"Your at Cloud town On Rainview Island in the East blue." Gild answered.

"East Blue...?" I repeated out loud I remembered seeing it on the map, but now the reality of my situation had settled in.

"Yeah Brat the ocean in the east, home of Gold Roger."

I chose that moment to fall off the stool, blacking out before I could even hit the ground.

Holy crap I was in the One Piece world!

 **-o-**

"Creak Creak Creak."

 _What is that noise?_

"Hey kid time to wake up."

 _Such a horrible voice and bright light_

"Hey who you calling horrible!?"

 _Light is so bright._

Bolting upright, I reacted to the unknown voice in my house. The room swam into focus and I blinked a couple times in shock when I realized I wasn't in my bed. I was in a small room with walls of wooden planks, it also had a slanted ceiling made of the same wood. There was a small chest to the left of a tiny desk near a window, and the bed was far smaller than my normal queen size, and lacked any color beside different shades of brown.

 _The heck where am..._

"Hey there!"

Cue screaming, I reached for the nearest thing which just happened to be a lamp.

"THUNK!"

"Ah shit, what was that for!" A voice yelled out shrill with pain.

My eyes were clenched shut in terror at the sudden scare, but now that I thought about it where had I heard that voice before?

"Ha ha ha aha! Brat that was wonderful." another voice spoke this time.

I cracked my eyes back open to look at my current companions. Sylvie was bent over in laughter in her seat, as Gild groaned from the floor hands clutched to his head.

"I'm sorry!" Jumping out of the bed I dropped the lamp and rushed to Gild's side, I'd always had interesting reflexes, which was a good thing if I was ever mugged in a dark alley or something, but for my friends or little brother, it usually ended with me apologizing as I applied ice to a new bruise or black eye.

"I'm okay," Gild waved of my hand, "Ugh!" he sat upright scrubbing at his face with an arm, like he had just woken up from a nap.

"Kid you okay?" I turned to look at Sylvie who still had a smile on her face. She was sitting in a rocking chair next to the stairs.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be... Agh" Pain raced through my head, followed by fast images. _Oh you have got to be kidding me_. I recalled the previous conversation from last night my spirits dropped instantly. _Oh god I'm in One Piece... wait maybe I'm in heaven or in a coma, screw you overactive imagination._ I cursed in my head.

"Judging from your mood drop you just remembered whatever was bothering you." Sylvie's eyes bore into mine as she sat poised like she owned the place (Which she did), "Want to talk about it?"

I looked at the old woman and saw concern in her eyes even if her face was emotionless, It was a gift, reading people's emotions just came easily to me. It was a blessing and a curse since it usually landed me a position as my friends personal therapist and advice giver.

I wasn't really sure how to answer her question, Hey I'm actually from a different universe where this whole world is a figment of an old Asian guys's imagination, and now I'm stuck here without anyway back to my home and family. I felt tears rise up in my eyes at that thought and images of my mom, dad, and little brother filled my mind.

 ** _Get to the end the last stop to return._**

Where did that come from? Memories of the pitch black room and creepy voice came back to me, "The End?"

"Come again?" Gild gave me a quizzical look which I returned... Wait did I just say that out loud

"Yup." Sylvie popped the final p with her tongue.

"Are you trying to get to the End girl?"

"Fable." I corrected Gild who gave me a strange look, "Yeah I know it's weird, just call me Fae."

"Do you know what the End is?" I asked, maybe if I found the End like the strange voice in dark places told me to I could return back home(Well now I'm officially crazy), my crushed spirit rose when I saw recognition flash across their faces.

"Well you can only be talking about one thing brat." I gave Sylvie an expectant look. "You're trying to reach the Grand line and go to Raftel, the end and the beginning."

There was a moment of dead silence. Of course! How could I be so stupid, in One Piece the end would obviously be Raftel. Now I have a way of getting home...

"How am I supposed to get there?!" Gild and Sylvie sweatdropped at my extreme action

"Are you sure you're okay?" I ignored Gild's question to focus on figuring out my dilemma, Come on Fae think, you have great reasoning skills, (Which probably wasn't true, but positivity is key in this situation) I racked my poor overloaded brain,

"Oh my god that's it!" I yelled with joy.

Sylvie and Gild jumped in their seats. _Of course_ I continued thinking ignoring the two I just had to somehow join the crew of the person traveling to Raftel, the future King of the Pirates, I had to become a Strawhat Pirate! Maybe it hadn't happened yet, but the rules of anime main character always achieving his goal probably still applied since this world was an anime. The best bet to get me home was finding Monkey D. Luffy and catching a ride to Raftel, it would just be an extra bonus that I'd get to live my own fantasy. _Good job Fae you're a genius_ I congratulated myself.

"Hey Sylvie, have you ever heard of the Strawhat pirates?" I asked smiling at my plan.

"Pirates?" She snapped out of her worried expression, she didn't seem all to frightened by the word and she looked at me blankly with steel gray eyes. "We don't get a lot of pirates here being near Shells town, which is a Marine base."

Shells town! That's perfect it's where Luffy meets Zoro.

"I'm sorry to bother you with this," My manners had returned with the sleep, "Is there some way you could help me get to Shells town?"

"You recognize the name?" Sylvie asked.

"Sort of." I smiled nervously no way was I going to explain how I really knew the place.

"I'm not sure you want to go there missy, Shells town is a pretty scary place right now." Gild stood up.

Oh yeah there is a corrupt axe handed marine in charge.

"I'll be fine, there is someone I have to meet there." I ignored the shiver of excitement I got saying those words.

Gild stared hard at me before sighing, "I could give you my old fishing boat, but I don't know how I feel sending a girl no older than my daughter out all alone to sea."

"I'll be fine." I reassured grin widening. At least that's what I hoped, I knew the basics of sailing from summer camp, and I was definitely better at directions than Zoro, but that's not saying much.

"Alright then I'll take you to my boat."

 **-o-**

Sylvie had left at some point during our conversation so I was surprised to see her with my backpack when we descended the stairs to the bar.

"Aw Sylvie worried about the little girly." Gild giggled like a child as she shot him a glare.

"The bag was already here and it had your name on it, I just added some necessary supplies." She huffed.

"Thank you Sylvie!" I gave the older woman a hug which she awkwardly returned. She kind of reminded me of my own grandmother who was um... harsh at some times, while really she just had my best interests at heart, Sylvie's familiar love, not only filled me with warmth it gave me a pain of nostalgia that set my mind back to the mission I had to accomplish.

"Growl"

"I also have breakfast for you."

Sheepishly I thanked her as she brought out a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, and a glass of milk. I hadn't realized how hungry I'd been, and I thanked Sylvie profusely for the meal.

I grabbed the backpack from her hands, the straps dug into my back from it's weight. "It's um really heavy."

"Not that I'm not grateful." I quickly waved my hands in front of me as Gild mouthed "good save" behind the woman.

I bid her farewell and we walked out of the bar and down to the docks. Cloud town had a small dock with tiny, worn down fishing boats as it's only occupants.

"Here it is." Gild stopped in front of a pathetic little boat possibly big enough for two tiny people.

"This is a fishing boat?" I was skeptical.

"Now you see why I upgraded."

It was a basic sailboat at least so there was hope of me being able to pilot it, if I wasn't eaten by a Sea king or something. Oh Crap I forgot about Sea kings! Nope can't chicken out now Fae think of an angry mother. The image of the Sea king disappeared being replaced by a very scary looking Asian lady who was yelling about where the hell I'd been, suddenly the overgrown sea snake didn't seem so bad.

"Thank you Gild so much," I gave him a hug surprising the older man before tossing my bag into the little boat and hopping in after it.

"Your umm... Going to be careful right Fae?"

"Yeah." I smiled flashing him a thumbs up.

"Well that's good." he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, as he helped unwind the rope.

"Thank you so much." I attempted a small bow, not an easy feat on the water.

"Just stay safe kid."

I kicked off from the water's edge waving at him until he was no more than a spot on the horizon. I looked out across the wide empty seas, clenching the Jade pendant on my neck, Don't worry everyone I'll find a way back home, I promise you.

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 **Hi this is an updated AN just wanted to tell you all (And I'll mention this again) I'm going through my story and editing the chapters. I'm still updating the story while I do this so the whole process is really really slow. Just wanted to give you all a heads up, and thank you again for reading.**

 **Please like and review!**

 **-Crystal Night**


	3. Apples and Bandages

**Hey guys, I'm so excited for Winter break!** **I'm going to Cali with my cousins, and I can't wait.**

 **Bad news is, that now everything in school is due in the upcoming week, NOOOOO!**

 **Anyways hope you enjoy Chapter 3**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, and I don't wish to, I leave the amazing story to the genius Eichiro Oda**

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If there was a moral to my life right now, it would be the ocean is terrifying.

Fifteen minutes into my voyage, a Sea king jumped out of the water. It was a giant spiny serpent, that looked sort of like a child's failed attempt at drawing a dragon. Green with blue orange spiny fins, its scales shimmered with reflected sunlight, the face ugly and grotesque, was adorned with a creepy fanged smile. It's landing made waves, that nearly flipped over my tiny craft, and sent me screaming and spinning in a mini whirlpool of dark blue waves. To put it mildly I freaked, and spent the rest of the trip, curled uncomfortably in the corner of my boat, attempting to make myself as small as possible. Being left out in the wide expanse of blue, alone and slightly dizzy, my overactive imagination turned out to be a curse. After an hour of imagining what lived in the murky depths (It had ranged from, Krakens, and Killer sharks, to Sea monkeys, and Sea Dwarfs) the sight of land in the distance almost made me cry.

I scrambled off my boat as it scraped against the dock, and fell to the ground.

"Oh sweet land, with safe people, and nothing scary underneath it!"

My body ached from being curled up in the boat, the wood planks had been the opposite of soft. Laying face down I probably looked freaky clinging to the dirt and kissing the ground, but people in this town probably had more things to worry about,

like axe handed Marines.

 _Can't hug the ground forever Fae you've got to find Luffy. Or at least Zoro, It's not like he's going anywhere._ Shakily I rose from the ground my view changing from solid brown to a barrage of colors. It was a quaint little town. There were far more people roaming around, than there had been at Cloud town, but the place was no D.C.. Although they did have a giant cake shaped building looming over the town, which probably could have passed as some new modern art museum, if it weren't for the cannons and the word Marines emblazoned on it.

 _Well destination in place let's go._ My bag made a jingling noise as I stood up and hoisted it over my shoulder. A couple of people near the docks gave me strange looks, as I began walking towards the tower of pirate doom.

Comforting chatter filled the air, as people went about their daily lives. The street sides were lined with old fashioned looking carts and booths. Vendors yelled out the items they had to sell today.

"Tuna, fresh caught East blue Tuna!"

"Get your meats here!"

"Hundred and one flavors of candy, don't miss out!"

After spending so much time alone on the open ocean, even the jostling of busy shoppers, was a welcome and comforting sensation. The whole world seemed brighter now that I was surrounded with the life of the town. Sunlight lit up every inch of the island, except for the looming shadow the marine base cast.

 _How fitting, and poetic._

"Apples get your apples here!" An elderly man, was manning a small cart shaded with a muddy green tarp, it was filled with bright red, juicy looking apples. I had gotten closer to the Marine base now, and somehow the street had become empty.

"Hey girl, you look hungry want an apple." He gave me a toothy grin from where he sat on a wooden stool, his balding head had only a few gray hairs, and his skin had wrinkled like a prune. Mildly afraid (and reminded of Snow white for some reason) I was prepared to decline his offer.

Growl..

"Uhh yeah, could I get one apple please?" What? Hunger greatly impairs my judgement.

I dug through my bag finding what looked like dollar bills in one of the compartments, I instantly recognized the paper as Beri.

"It'll be 100 Beri." I counted the foreign currency, and the man gave me a kindly smile.

"Girl?"

"Yes."

Am I right in assuming you were heading towards the Marine base?"

"Yeah how'd you know?" I handed him the cash.

"There's not much else up this way." His smile had turned sad, his yellowing teeth no longer visible as he handed me one of his apples.

"I never get much company up here anymore." his voice had become quiet.

I took a bite of the red and large looking apple,

"Wow this is really good!"

He laughed a wheezing laugh, "I'm glad you like it."

The apple had tasted fresher than any I'd ever eaten before, it was similar to ones I had gotten from my Aunt, who had decide to go all organic last summer. _To bad everyone's to scared of the shitty marines to even get close enough to try these apples._

"I've been running this cart for all my life."

his back slumped, and I sensed a monolog coming up.

"I'm to old to move my cart any farther than here, but i'd rather shoot myself than stop selling my fruit."

His eyes seemed to mist over, like he looked at something only he could see.

"My wife used to help me out, but she had to leave for the other side."

his head bowed he fell into silence, leaving me sad, and angry. I'd always been a firm hater of the corrupt marines, but if I hadn't wanted to see Axe-hand Morgan in jail already, I would now, hell I'd want him to suffer worse. But right now I couldn't do anything, I'd have to wait for Luffy.

Then a sudden thought struck me.

"Hey Mister could I actually get another one of these?"

"Sure." After paying him once again I turned back to the base an Apple in my mouth, a burning flame of anger in my gut, and the extra fruit in my bag.

"You should be careful up that way young miss, I hear there's a dangerous bounty hunter locked up there."

"Thank Ossan." I waved at the man as I walked away, then I paused and turned back.

"Oh and don't worry about business anymore, something tells me there's going to be a drastic leadership change on this island soon." I paused beaming at the kind fruit seller. "I'm here to make sure of that." I turned back and left before he could reply, heading off once again, to meet Pirate hunter Zoro.

* * *

 _Now what?_

After walking for a while I had come to a large wall, which left me with a little dilemma.

I was not a fucking rubber man!

 _How am I supposed to get over that?! It's gigantic!_

Okay fine it wasn't that big, but still how many ordinary people could just scale walls like this on command. I strode forward and touched my hand to the rough surface. I remembered the old man's words, the pain in his eyes and voice, and felt determination settle in.

 _Well better get started._

Climbing up the wall was grueling, probably because, I was still wearing my backpack. Taking it off just wasn't an option, seeing how someone could just take it, and plus there was something in it I needed. Finally reaching the top of the wall, I pulled myself up arms aching from the strain. Upper body strength had never been my most charming quality, actually scratch that, it wasn't even a quality.

On top of the wall, I looked around, a rush of vertigo and awe fell over me. It wasn't really all that high of a wall, but the marine base was already on a hill, so it made the ground seem unsettlingly far away. I could see the whole town, small houses and bright tarps of street vendors, winding roads that separated the buildings, and by far the most breathtaking sight ever, the sparkling turquoise ocean. Sunlight bounced off crystalline waves, that lapped against a sandy shore, boats bobbing up and down with the motion. The water shifting into darker shades of Turquoise, as it got farther and farther away from the shore.

Unlike contrary belief, I liked the ocean, it was beautiful and full of wonders. I just didn't like being alone out on the sea, with company I felt safe enough that I could just enjoy the natural wonder.

I turned back towards reality, looking to the other side of the wall, I nearly had a fangirl attack. There in all of his bad ass glory, was The Roronoa Zoro, pirate hunter and future World's Greatest Swords man. Zoro had always been one of my favorite characters, I loved how he was able to take the craziest of situations with calm and discipline, and found it hilarious when he broke out of his cool macho character because of Luffy's or the crew's antics.

"Hey Girl."

I nearly started squealing with joy, when Zoro started speaking, his voice was low and threatening, and extremely sexy. Taking a few calming breaths, I collected myself before I could give an embarrassing answer.

"You shouldn't be here, leave before I kill you."

His demon glare sent a tingle of fear and excitement down my spine. Ignoring the warning I jumped off the wall, landing in a crouch at the other side. _T_ _hank you Minerva, for talking me into taking some martial arts classes for self defense_ , _apparently sticking the landing is very important in both the real and fictional world._

"Did you hear me you moron!?" Zoro looked even more pissed than before, as he interrupted my mental dialogue, but this time there was a hint of fear in his eye. _Aww he's such a softie, caring for strangers._

"I did just didn't feel like listening." I replied.

From up close Zoro looked awful, I knew from the anime that he had been crucified for nine days, but video could not catch the horrible smell of unwashed man, mixed with what was probably the scent of his own waste. He smelled like the guy's locker room after a football game times ten, and the scent made me gag. The visual detail from the anime was also lacking, by the ugly purple bruising, and dark red stains on his white shirt, the severity of his injuries were apparent.

 _Damn that Helmeppo if he didn't befriend Coby later, I'd kick his ass for doing this._

"Well you'll regret that decision." his eyes hardened as he replied. Ignoring his threat I walked up to him, digging into my backpack.

"Hey what are you….." I shoved the apple from the old man in his face.

"You look hungry."

"I'm not." he scowled

 **Growl...**

"Uh huh."

"Go away you idiot!"

"Stop being stubborn and eat, or I'm shoving it down your throat."

Zoro looked torn, his eyes darted from the base and back to me and my apple.

"Don't worry I'm not afraid of the Marines, you should just take the food now, seeing as how you won't be able to eat for a while."

I was really worried, Zoro looked so unhealthy, and even though Luffy would come around later and save him, it hurt to see him suffer.

"And can you really afford to die here, Zoro?" I knew the question would motivate him to eat, but playing on his ambition, even if it was for his own good, made me felt a little bit mean. Looking into his eyes, I could almost hear Kuina's teasing voice.

He sighed snapping out of his nostalgic trance, "How am I supposed to eat it?"

I smiled "I'll hold it, you'll bite, and I mean the apple?" I wiggled my eyebrows and he flushed red, which made me giggle, _Leave it to a sex joke to fluster a bad ass._

I held the red fruit out to him and he reluctantly took a bite, which quickly became three. In no time at all the apple had been finished the only thing left was a slimy core, and the sticky sweet apple juice on my hand.

"Wow someone was starving."

"Shut up."

I smiled again, it was probably just my imagination, but Zoro looked a little healthier, his cheeks brighter and more flushed than before.

"Do you want me to cut you loose?" I slapped a mental palm over my mouth _Ugh I'm such an idiot, what am i thinking?! If I set Zoro free now, then how am I going to find Luffy._ But I just couldn't help it, damn I'm to nice.

"Don't you even think about it." He glared at me, licking a piece of apple of his lips. Thank goodness Zoro was a stubborn and proud man.

"Okay," I gave in easily. I might not be able to free him now, but I could help him. Circling Zoro, trying to get a full picture of his condition. I remembered back when I was younger, dad would always bring home some of his medical textbooks to read. I loved reading, and sometimes when I was bored he'd let me borrow the books. The information inside, combined with my constant sport injuries, meant I knew how to deal with basic wounds. I stopped my inspection, and took the backpack off dropping it on the dirt, so I could look for the first aid kit Sylvie had packed.

"Do you think you'll get in trouble if I put bandages on you?"

"What?"

"The marines here are kind of thick, so if I use them sparingly you'll probably be fine."

"Hey what? you witch stay away, don't, Agh!"

"Oops, Sorry." I continued cleaning and bandaging an ugly looking gash under his left ribcage.

I ignored Zoro's yelps and protests, until the job was finished. Stepping back I admired my work, all his wounds had been wrapped in white bandages, and most of the blood was cleaned off, it was a good job for someone with no field experience.

"How do they feel?"

He sent me a look, which reminded me of a pouting child.

"Fine."

I sat down, careful that I was upwind from Zoro, and shuffled through my bag again.

"Who are you?" Zoro's voice had become quiet and soft, quite contradicting to his rough appearance.

"A girl who knows many things Pirate hunter." _Nice, the Nico Robin mysterious mood achieved._ After an internal fist bump, silence filled the yard. I cleaned up the medical supplies, and removed a tiny blue notebook and a pencil. I wasn't a drawer, unlike most anime fans, I couldn't draw more than a stick figure. Instead I found a pastime in writing. Jotting down story ideas in my notebook, I stayed with Zoro.

"Why are you still here?" I had just finished writing down the basic plot to a new story.

"I didn't want you to be lonely."

"I don't need your pity."

I looked at the pirate hunter, he was scowling. If I hadn't known so much about Zoro, I'd probably be yelling by now, but instead I gave him one of my warmest smiles. The angry look on his face faded away into one of surprise.

"Well I'll be back tomorrow." I put away my stuff and picked the backpack up, swinging it on and making my way over to climb the stone wall. Silence met my statement, and I started climbing again focusing on keeping my grip on the rough concrete wall.

I had made it to the top of the wall and prepared to jump.

"Hey Kid!" I looked back down into the prison yard, Zoro's face was emotionless and his eyes were shadowed beneath his bandanna.

"Thanks."

I smiled even wider this time, "No problem." I let myself fall to the other side of the wall,

 **Thump!**

I landed less gracefully than before, silently thanking whoever was up in the sky, that Zoro didn't witness my pathetic faceplant. Groaning and rubbing my nose, I rolled over to look up at the sky. It was bright blue, and cotton candy clouds floated above my head, it looked the same way as it did back home. The warmth I felt inside from the moment with Zoro, had been chased away with that one thought.

 _Hurry up Luffy, I want to go home._


	4. Hot guys and Axe hand Marines

**Hey everybody!**

 **Sorry this chapter took so long, but I wanted to finish the Shells town part in one go so it took more time. Plus it was the week before winter break, so everything was due, and I mean everything.**

 **I was thinking of adding a romance element to my story, seeing how this chapter introduces a whole bunch of guys to ship with Fae, but I'm not 100% behind the idea yet. If you have any thoughts on this, either review or message me.**

 **Shout out to CorpulentCatfish for leaving a review. Thank you, your words are seriously, a lot of encouragement to me.**

 **Special Thanks to my friend A, for editing my horrible grammar, and supporting my writing. Not sure If I can use her real name here, but she probably knows who she is. And I'm just going to tell you that your awesome, and Thank you so much!**

 **Edited:4-5-17**

 **DISCLAIMER: I am an uncreative person, so I do not own One Piece Save**

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I had crashed in an alley for the night after waiting for Luffy's arrival all day. Sleeping had been hard, so I was already semi-awake by the time sunlight filtered through the opening of the alley. The light creeping over the floor, and illuminating objects nearly invisible in the dark.

Yawning, I sat up and attempted to work the stiffness out of my back. Standing up with the backpack that had served as my pillow for the night, I walked out into the light. _AHH, THE LIGHT!_ I hissed, and retreated back into the dark alley.

Shielding my eyes, I walked out again (a little wobbly) into the streets. Today was going to be another waiting game, I could buy Zoro some food and possibly more bandages and medical supplies. I definitely knew with the crew I planned on joining they'd be a necessity.

I wandered down the street heading towards a bakery, that had been selling sandwich's yesterday. _I gave him something sweet yesterday, so maybe something salty_ I pondered in my head as I walked. Knowing Zoro the man would probably most appreciate a bottle of Sake, but that was far from the nutritious meal a starving man needed. Maybe a sandwich would be good for him? I paused thinking of today's food options.

"Hey, I wonder what kind of person Zoro is, if he's a good guy I'll ask him to join my crew." I snapped out of thinking, and tensed, as an excited voice shouted over the crowds.

"He's in prison cause he's obviously not!" A second voice answered the first, this one was far less relaxed and was shrill with terror.

"Shishsishi."A cheerful laugh sounded out causing my heart to nearly stop, The sounds of the town seemed to drown out and unfocus, as I looked for the source, my pulse pounding in my ears. My eyes landed on a small teen wearing a red vest, and a trademark straw hat over messy black hair.

 _Omg it's Luffy!_ My inner fangirl banged around inside her mental room, squealing as I rushed to do something productive and follow the familiar straw hat. Luffy and Coby were walking through the town, Coby fretting over every little detail, while Luffy looked happy and relaxed. His 100 megawatt smile was constant, and his joy was contagious eventually putting the fretting pinkette at ease.

I felt a little creepy stalking the two of them, yet I couldn't wipe the happy grin off my face. Seeing Luffy's scar in person, witnessing the weak and cowardly Coby in real life, was all just to exciting.

Coby was a prime example of what living in an anime could do for you. I remembered watching the Water Seven arc and spraying chips all over my room when he appeared, all hot and tall.

We made it to the wall that surrounded the prison yard where Zoro was kept. Oh crap, I never bought that sandwich. I glanced back, well Rika would be by with a rice ball soon.

"Gum Gum Rocket." A stretching sound like that of an elastic band interrupted my thoughts, I turned around and blinked, looking at the space Luffy had once occupied as Luffy and a screaming Coby shot up to the top of the wall.

 _I wish I could do that_. Groaning and grumbling after them, I scaled the wall (manually) a little further away so I wouldn't get in the pair's way.

"If we untie that rope, he can escape, right?" Struggling up the wall, I smiled from hearing those words in real life. I had always watched the Funimation sub, since the English voice acting left much to be desired and I had to say that Mayumi Tanaka did an impressive job, the voice acting managed to capture the childish innocence of the Strawhat captain and sounded exactly the same as the Luffy in front of me.

I managed to climb to the top of the wall right as Zoro spoke,

"Hey, you guys." He paused dramatically, turning to look towards the two peering over the wall to my left with a glare, "Get lost."

Coby freaked out, flailing his arms wildly in panic, while Luffy seemed unfazed. Then a ladder poked over right next to him.

 _Oh, it's Rika_. Distracted for a moment, I turned back to Zoro, surprised when he stared back with his scary eyes.

I shook myself out of the momentary surprise, and lifted a hand in greeting, "Oh, hey Zoro! How ya doing?" The three others on the wall turned to look at me, Coby freaked out mouth dropping open in shock, while Luffy stared curiously.

"Agh! A girl!" Coby shouted his waving hands pointed at me

 _Rude. And how come he yells at me, but not Rika?_

Speaking of the girl, she was barely fazed by my appearance, sending me a quick confused glance, before lowering a rope into the yard and climbing down. She then ran up to Zoro, a smile lighting her little face.

I watched the scene excitedly, it was just so adorable!

I giggled at Zoro's stunned look as the sweet little girl presented rice balls to him.

"Go away, shorty, I'm not hungry." Zoro growled.

"But.." Rika didn't look scared of Zoro, the way she said "but" made it seem more like a child whining.

"You're annoying, don't make me hurt you!"

Tough guy. I felt a little annoyed at the swordsman's lack of tact, but still found it sweet he was watching out for the little girl.

 **Clank!**

A sudden clinking noise echoed through the yard, as the gates opened.

"Hey now, don't be a bully." A reedy voice spoke from the gates and I nearly did a spit take, that hairdo was even uglier in real life.

Helmeppo swaggered into the yard, decked in a hideous purple suit.

"Looks like you're still energetic Roronoa Zoro." He played with the collar on his suit as he laughed.

"And another weird guy appears." Luffy stated in a way as if he was observing the interactions of birds far away, just mildly interested. His comment made me look back at the pair.

"Thank goodness. They're Marines so I'm sure that girl will be fine." Coby looked relieved, while I winced. Poor guys dreams were about to be stepped on.

Helmeppo continued walkin, a cocky grin decorating his oddly shaped face. He was flanked by some very serious looking marines.

"Hey those onigiri look pretty good." He drawled as he approached. He swiped his arm out taking one of Rika's Onigiri and biting into it.

"No!" Rika looked horrified at the loss of her hard work, but it was too late to stop Helmeppo

"Ugh, it's nasty!" Helmeppo lost his facade of coolness, as he spat out bits of rice.

"It's full of sugar, Onigiri need salt! Salt" his face was a little terrifying, not because he himself was, but because his face was horrifyingly hideous as it morphed in anger and disgust. _That really should not be seen, unless it's on a computer screen_ I winced.

"But I'd thought it'd taste better if it was sweet." Rikas lower lip trembled, looking like a kicked puppy.

Without a word Helmeppo swung out, and smacked the rest of the rice balls to the floor. He rose his foot to began stomping on them, and I lost my cool.

"Hey, you self entitled brat!" I yelled out before I could stop myself.

"Ehhhh?" He and his marine guards turned to face me. I was vaguely aware of Coby and Luffy turning to look at me as well.

Curse my big mouth, curse you. Well, the hornets nest had been kicked already, might as well make the experience worth it.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a yellow mushroom?" I smirked, personally I thought the insult was weak, but Helmeppo looked horribly insulted.

"What!?" he turned an interesting shade of red.

"Oh, I'm sorry. That was an insult to yellow mushrooms." Now that was better.

"Seize that wench!" He shrieked turning a furious shade of red. Rika and her rice balls were forgotten, but now I was in trouble.

"Oh, crap!" I jumped down from the wall and took off running as the shout of marines followed me. I ducked and sharply turned, racing through town, glad that at least Helmeppo's henchman cared about civilians enough not to shoot at me. Villagers dove out of the way, shrieking as carts were overturned, and dust clouds were kicked up by the pursuing marines. Thank goodness dad made me sign up for cross country this year.

Eventually the cries of marines and the crashing behind me ceased. I hunched over, panting in exhaustion, I had made it to an isolated street in the small town where a bunch of smaller ones branched off to various places.

"I hate cardio!" I panted out loud, my lungs wheezing for breath. Just because I did cross country didn't mean I had liked it. Eventually I caught my breath again.

I stood straight up breathing still slightly labored, _Better find Luffy and Zoro_. Definitely didn't want to chase the two of them in that little fishing boat again. I took a step to my left, then looked to the right. "Where am I!?"

In my defense, I'd only been in Shells town for a day, and somehow I had lost sight of the marine base that served as a landmark.

"Hey." I looked up from my musing, as a man walked out of an alley to my right.

"Uhhh..." was my eloquent response, he was incredibly hot. Muscled, but not bulky he looked lean in his navy jeans, and a light grey sweater. Windswept white hair perfectly tousled, went perfectly with his flawless handsome face. His eyes burned with intensity, and were a startling bright fire red.

"Hello there Fable, you look different in person." he smiled. The action combined with his smooth voice made me feel like I'd melted into a warm puddle.

"Fae," was my automatic response.

"Ah, yes."

 _Wait just one doggone minute, how does he know my name?_ Mentally slapping myself to snap out of the dreamy daze, I shifted ready to bolt from the stranger.

"Oh, I'm not here to hurt you." I took a step back as he took one forward. He sighed.

"I see your mother's lessons on speaking to strangers didn't fall on deaf ears."

"How do you know me?" If I didn't know it would look ridiculous, I would have raised my fists in an action movie fighting stance.

"You've always had a good memory, Fae, don't you remember my voice?" His eyebrows raised in amusement, ticking me off.

Who is this psycho, a stalker? Wait is it...

"You're that voice." My stomach had dropped to the floor, as I matched the smooth voice of the silver haired man, to the one from my time in the dark.

"Yes."

I trembled, hands shaking and clenching into fists, not with fear, but with anger. I was also a little confused, something pushing in the corner of my mind said that I'd heard the voice in a another place not just the dark space, but right now anger took precedence.

"How dare you take me from my home, and drop me here! You probably organized the old man and the bus, where do you get off screwing with my life?!" Now I took a step forward instead of back, this hot guy had no right to mess with me.

"What are you talking about, Fae?" The man had the nerve to tilt his head and give me a puppy dog worthy look of confusion.

"You...you...you stuck me here in this crazy world, and I almost got eaten yesterday... by a sea snake!" I shouted flustered.

"I'm not screwing with your life." He walked forward to meet me lowering his face to my level, I blushed as he looked at me with a smirking face, that said you're adorable.

"Ho.. How does getting me hit by a bus not count as screwing with me?" I stuttered unnerved by his sudden closeness.

"If I recall you jumped in front of it."

"That..That's not fair, you knew I would, and.."

"Relax." He put his hands up defensively and then he smirked. "Fae, it was nice to finally meet you."

"Huh, wait this isn't over! I don't even know your name." _Okay, that came out horribly wrong._

"Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to talk later. Here." He threw something at me which I instinctively caught.

I looked down at the object in my hand, It was a small shaft like instrument made of metal and paper. I flipped it open with a snap, and discovered it was a simple, and plain white fan.

"I didn't want to give you a knife cause, heavens knows you'd end up doing more harm to yourself than your enemies." He seemed amused, but I was to engrossed by the gift to check his expression.

I had been doing writing research once, and learned that these particular fans were called Tessen war fans, utilized by the Japanese as self defense weapons. There was a whole martial art form dedicated to the weapon, called Tessenjutsu. Out of curiosity I'd looked up the fighting style on YouTube and learned a few moves.

"Why?" I felt conflicted, he seemed nice, but he still had been the reason I was in this new world.

"I promise I'll explain later, but for now, take two rights and a left if you want to meet the swordsman."

He turned away and headed down into the alley.

"Oh, and the name is Zale."

He turned around a corner with a final wave, Shaking out of my stupor I dashed to follow him turning the same way he had. I stood there looking at the empty walkway, dumbfounded for a moment before realizing what his information meant. I had to get to Zoro now, I could worry about the extremely ho- mysterious boy later.

I clutched the fan close to my chest, and hesitated for a second before dashing out of the alley.

 **-o-**

 **Zoro POV**

Zoro was starving.

The little girl's riceball had helped curb his hunger, but he wished that she had brought him sake instead.

The sun beat down on him with no mercy, and he was forced to lower his head and squint to block out the intense light. The motion allowed him to look down upon his body, his left arm was wrapped with white bandages covering one of the many wounds on his person. Looking at the wrappings, he could recall the feel of the stranger's gentle fingers on his arm as it secured the cloth.

That crazy woman, had probably just saved the little girl. Her insult aimed at that bratty Marine, had created time for the little girl to escape, with the help of that Straw hat guy.

Seriously who does he think he is? Asking me to be a pirate.

He snorted, that guy was certainly very interesting.

Zoro lost himself in thought. His mysterious savior had been an interesting woman. By appearance she was ordinary, with wavy black hair, decent but not unordinary bust size, hell, even her clothing was normal, but somehow Zoro couldn't shake the feeling that she was anything but that.

The way her light brown eyes shined almost golden, filled with teasing mirth and concern. She hadn't even tried to hide the worry she felt for him, her emotions visible in every gesture she made. Her smile, she seemed to give away its full radiance without a second thought, that the man in front of her was a killer. There was also an interesting strength to her, refusing to listen to his threats or demands, even though she looked so weak. She had ignored his complaints with a smile and done her own thing, which was a blessing to him, not that he'd ever admit that out loud.

Zoro almost thought he was hallucinating when she called out to that blonde haired coward from the top of the wall, the blue backpack from yesterday still on her back, as the wind blew her loose hanging hair every which way.

Speaking of strange people, Zoro looked up at the towering Marine base that straw hat kid had just flown up to. Zoro swore that he'd seen the boy's arm stretch like rubber, but that was impossible, wasn't it?

And to think the kid wanted him to join his pirate crew. Not that Zoro had anything particular against pirates, they were just a good source of income.

He sat there musing about the straw hatted stranger, until a call from above broke him out of his thoughts.

 **-o-**

 **Fae POV**

I made it back to the yard and quickly climbed back over the wall to discover that Zoro was still tied up, but by the dark expression on his face, and the way he looked at the base, I assumed Luffy had been by.

"Hey there!" my voice was cheerful, even though I was still completely confused by the earlier conversation with Zale.

He looked up, eyes widening, "You're back?"

"Yeah, how was the rice ball?"

His eyes widened with shock, "How'd you know I ate it?"

I jumped down to his side of the wall landing in a crouch, and walked towards him while he asked his question.

"Oi, what are you doing?"

"I'm untying you."

His face hardened into the look of a devil, and even though I knew it was a bluff, it was still pretty scary.

"Do that and I'll kill you." The eerie monotone sent shivers down my spine.

"You made a deal with the yellow mushroom, right?"

Now he looked suspicious instead of scary, as I inspected the knots that kept him tied to the cross. "How do you know all this?"

"I'm a psychic." I said without a second though, I had thought up a story to present to the Strawhats that would make sense during my long journey with them. It was the best I could come up with for explaining my otherworldly knowledge.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

 _Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth._

Identifying the best point to start, I crouched down behind him and began untying. I paused part way through to take my backpack off since I had been carrying it around all day. I stretched out my sore back with a couple cracks, I couldn't wait until we got an actual ship for me to put my stuff in.

"He's going to break that deal and execute you whenever he feels like it." I continued the conversation.

"You're lying."

Coby chose that exact moment to fall over the wall with a thud.

We both turned to look at the pinkette, who stood up dusting himself off muttering under his breath

"I have to free Zoro... What are you doing here!?"

Coby's eyes bugged out comically, and I rolled my eyes focusing back on task. _Doing your job, apparently. Damn, these knots are tight._

"Oi kid stop her, the witch is insane."

I didn't bother defending myself, since I was way too caught up in attempting to loosen the rope. In the background I could hear Coby back up my story to Zoro, and explain Luffy's actions.

I listened to Coby beg Zoro to save Luffy, and I smiled. Hearing the speech in person made it more powerful, and I could see the true friendship between the future marine admiral, and Pirate King. Zoro's face had reverted to a serious face, the angry aura around him growing thicker with each passing second while Coby talked, and I'd somehow managed to get one of his arms almost free.

"Hold it right there!" a gravelly voice filled with anger drew my attention away briefly.

 _Oh damn, that guy is ugly!_ A couple of Marines stood in front of me guns raised, but the really horrifying image was a man who wore a metal face mask and had an axe for a hand. The anime really didn't do the Marine Captain justice, the detail of the wooden axe handle that stuck through his elbow, alone was enough to make me puke.

Coby started freaking out behind me, making pitiful noises. I resisted the urge to join him, knowing that Luffy would come to save us any minute now...

"For the crime of treason, you three will be executed!"

I raised a silent hand as the other drew out my Tessen fan, "Um, technically I'm not a citizen of your island so this isn't treason." Everyone stared at me, silence filling the yard.

"She's right" a marine whispered to his comrade, causing axe hand Morgan to twitch in anger behind him.

"She is going against the Marines and we are part of the World Governement, everyone in this world must bow to their power!"

 _Still doesn't apply to me._

"Take aim!" The captain's voice rang out.

CLICK!

The click resounded through the air, as the guns were loaded. Zoro's eyes had gotten wide, and he was trembling along with Coby, although they both had different reasons. Zoro was probably thinking about his promise to Kuina.

I stared at the guns pointed at me, _what the hell is taking Luffy so long?!_ I screamed mentally

"Fire!"

Bangs rang out, and before I could stop myself I was moving into the bullet's paths, turning my back to the guns. I used my body to shield Coby and Zoro.

"Hey girl!" Zoro yelled while Coby yelped.

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket!"

I felt a sharp sting in my shoulder that burned like fire as something landed with a thump behind me, and then there was a sound like an elastic band, which caused me to turn.

"Luffy!"

"You!"

"Straw hat!"

Fudgesicles!

I thought as the others yelled, my unwounded arm dropped the fan and reached over to grab the injured one. I felt warm liquid run through my fingers, I nearly fainted from shock right there.

"What the hell are you?!" Zoro yelled as Luffy laughed and redirected all the bullets.

"I'm Luffy, the man who will be the King of the Pirates." He had a goofy familiar smile on his face, but somehow it made my heart stop.

The nonchalant air, the sure way he said his future, like it was a fact, took me aback. I'd never been the most confident person, and all the dreams I'd ever had were insignificant and half assed things that student councilors forced us to write. But here he stood, a man who believed in himself so much, that others just had to believe in him too.

Zoro grinned. "You're the son of the Devil. Fine, I'd rather be a pirate then die here."

"Great, you'll be my crewmate!" Luffy raised his arms in jubilation, Zoro's swords clattering against each other on his back.

"Don't bother untying him." I hissed through gritted teeth, still clutching the pulsing wound.

Luffy looked at me from where he stood.

"Hey, you're the one that helped the little rice ball girl."

"Fable Sun at your service." I took a mock bow, wincing as the motion tweaked my arm.

"Hey, you're hurt!" Luffy's eyes widened in panic. The childish innocence would have been enough to make me laugh if my arm wasn't in so much pain.

"I'm okay, just hurry up and give Zoro his swords."

Zoro sent me a look, probably not expecting me to know that the three swords Luffy was holding were all his.

"Alright," Luffy replied with a straight face.

"You just trust her like that!" Coby screamed with shark teeth.

"She helped Zoro, so she must be a good guy." Luffy replied, still completely serious.

Coby sweatdropped and even Zoro had a large bead of sweat on his face.

"Ahh!" The marines charged at us with drawn swords as Luffy passed the swords to Zoro's almost freed hand.

Shink

Zoro stood a foot away from the cross he'd been tied to moments before. His three swords were drawn, blocking all of the Marine's weapons, and I had to prevent myself from fangirling over the familiar white handle of Wado Ichimonji in his mouth. I was also incredibly impressed, I hadn't even seen Zoro move.

"I promised to be a pirate," Zoro looked up at Luffy. The attacking marines who'd just been blocked began to freak out, sweat rolling down their faces. I simply watched, the pain in my arm forgotten.

Zoro continued, "Opposing the marines will make me a wanted man. However, I'll tell you one thing." I couldn't help myself watching the badass scene, and let loose my little internal fangirl, who started to shriek and run into things in my head, screaming about how Santoryu is awesome.

"I will always follow my ambitions, to become the world's greatest swordsman. If you do anything that would cause me to abandon my ambitions, you will end your life on my sword!"

"As the Pirate King's crew mate, I wouldn't expect any less of you." Luffy's grin grew even wider

 _These guys are just so..._

A silent understanding passed between Captain and First mate, then Luffy launched himself into a set of furious attacks at Axe Hand Morgan. The marines were plenty occupied by the two monsters, so I took the time to examine my wound. It had torn a hole in my green t-shirt, and the wound pulsed with blood. I felt a little nauseous. I'd have to get the bullet out first, I remembered my dad's books saying to use tweezers. Um, no way do I trust myself with something like that.

"Hey!" I looked up, Helmeppo was pointing a gun to Coby's head.

He was trembling, the gun clattering in his hand as he yelled, "If you try anything, I'll shoot!"

Luffy started giving his speech about having faith in Coby, as I fought an internal war. Interfere, and I might change the story I knew. I was still pissed at Helmeppo though, and even if he would one day become a good marine, I had seen Zoro's wounds up close and it pissed me off. I was just sitting there within striking distance, and no one had seemed to notice me yet, it would be so easy to...

"It's okay, Luffy," Coby yelled out, his legs trembling, "I wouldn't want to get in the way of your dream."

Well I guess it will turn out alright if I don't interfere now. I turned away...

Apparently the universe just loves screwing with me, I tensed when I felt cool metal touch to my head.

"Fine, you might not care about the boy, but what about her, huh?"

"Hey, you coward!" Zoro took a step forward. The look on his face caused Helmeppo to squeak in fear.

This is bad...

Luffy and Zoro were in a stalemate. Unlike Coby, they didn't really know me well enough to ask me to die for them. My mind raced as I searched for a way to escape my predicament.

"Go ahead and shoot, then." Everyone turned to look at me sharply, I inhaled deeply steeling myself to continue.

"They're pirates, what makes you think they'd care about a random girl?" I knew this fact wasn't true about the Straw Hats, but for most pirates it was. My words seemed to register with Helmeppo, who most likely had only met the other kind of pirates before, and his eyes widened as he realized his mistake, letting the gun slip from my head just a little.

 _NOW!_

I picked up my fallen fan, clenching it in the hand closest to the blonde and swung around to face him using the weapon to knock the gun away from my head completely, with the motion I swung my opposite hand, clenched in a fist.

"Swing Punch!"

I nailed him in the face using my momentum from the first swing to increase the force. He didn't fly back, like when Luffy hit a guy, but he did fall back on his butt, letting out a shout of pain. My injured shoulder screamed at the sudden use, making everything around me spin momentarily. In the background, I heard sounds of Luffy and Zoro defeating Axe Hand Morgan.

"Nice, Zoro."

"No problem, Captain."

Now I can die in peace. I did a named attack, and I witnessed the first moment of Zoro and Luffy. My inner fangirl had passed out, and I squeaked a little from the awesome scene.

"Fable-san, are you okay?" I looked up to see Coby standing above me, since I had collapsed to my knees.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I breathed hard, standing shakily back up.

"Hey Story, you're pretty cool," Luffy laughed out loud.

"Thanks."

"Luffy-san, her name's Fable, not Story!"

"That's what I said."

Coby sweatdropped, and I giggled.

"You can just call me Fae, it's way easier."

"Okay Fae, join my crew."

"Sure!" _Ha, stealing Brook's line._

Coby yelled at Luffy, as Zoro collapsed to the ground.

"I'm so hungry." He groaned.

I laughed even harder, This is going to be a great crew.

 **-o-**

We made it back into town where Rika's mom had offered us all a free meal, and I let the doctor treat my shoulder wound after he had looked at Zoro. It still hurt a lot, but now it had been wrapped up, so at least the bleeding stopped. I was given new clothes, courtesy of Rika's mother, and being careful of the bandages, I slipped the navy blue T-shirt with a red anchor design on the front and light blue jean shorts on.

"I'm stuffed," Zoro groaned as I walked into the bar.

"Well, that makes one of you," I broke in. The Swordsman turned to look at me, following my own stare. Currently I was watching Luffy down another plate of food adding it to the impressive stack besides him.

"Oh Fae, you're back." The straw hatted boy looked up and spoke while he shoveled food into his already stuffed mouth.

"I said I'd join your crew, where else would I go, Captain?"

"Shishishi, that's true."

I shook my head, smiling fondly, and took a seat next to Coby.

"How is your arm, Fable-san?" The glasses wearing boy looked away from his gluttonous companion, focusing on me.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Fae?"

"But I assumed..."

"It's alright Coby, no need to be so formal among friends." He looked embarrassed as he nodded in reply.

"You know, one day you'll be a great Marine." He looked startled, and I didn't miss the confused glances I got from Luffy and Zoro.

"How'd you know I want to be a marine?"

"Ehh, just do," I shrugged, smiling as I heard a thudding sound from Zoro's direction, and the amused laughter of Luffy.

Coby looked shyly at me. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so." I smiled, he turned away, red in embarrassment. Coby had always been one of my favorite characters, he went from being a coward to someone brave and tough. He was a character easy to connect to, and his struggles were so human; Coby didn't have Luffy's monster strength or will in the beginning, he had to learn it all on his own. He went from being normal to being super strong.

I took my own plate of food from Rika's smiling mother, and shifted through my backpack. I pulled out a copy of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I had packed the book in my bag because, I needed it for an English project, but it had always been a favorite. I sat and read, enjoying the familiarity of my favorite story.

"Hey, let's go." I looked up from the book, surprised by Zoro's command. Coby looked slightly beaten up, and Luffy stood in the doorway, his straw hat shadowing his eyes. There was also a couple of Marines standing in the bar... Oh.

"Alright." How on earth had I zoned out through all of that? I stood up and made sure to push in my chair as I put my book away.

"Thank you very much for the meal." I gave a small bow to Rika's mom.

"No, it was my pleasure."

"Bye, Onee-san."

"Bye Rika, keep making rice balls, soon you'll be a master chef." The little girl giggled as I patted her on the head. I waved goodbye, as I hurried after Luffy, and Zoro.

"That was really something back there. They might find out about it, though." Zoro was telling Luffy as I caught up.

"I'm sure Coby can handle the rest." Luffy laughed.

"Anyone ever tell you that you're smarter than you look, Luffy?" I ignored Zoro's incredulous look. It was true, Luffy was smart in some situations. I would know- I'd seen them.

"Never!" Luffy replied happily.

We came to a small boat that was bigger than the one I had arrived in. I helped the two set up to take off. Coby and the Marines had come to see us off, giving us all a salute, as Coby thanked Luffy for his help.

"Bye Coby! Make sure you become a great Marine." I called out waving my good arm in farewell.

"I will Fae-san!" He called back, grinning as he held his salute.

I sat back down in the small boat, and looked forward to the ocean.

We had finally set out to sea, and I couldn't help but feel excited for the adventures in store.


	5. Stories Cure Boredom

**Merry Christmas everybody!**

 **I was deciding whether or not to do a christmas special, but felt the story was not anywhere near evolved enough to do it, plus by the time I thought of attempting it I was left with no time to write TT. (Curse my poor planning abilities)**

 **MawVax: thanks for leaving a review, I'm glad you like the psychic idea, and I can only say you need to keep on reading to see how far Fae gets with her fan ;)**

 **As I said last chapter, if anyone has any ideas on if I should add a romance element to this story, a poll for which guys, anything. I'd be glad to hear about it in a review or just message me.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Piece or PJO(This will make sense as you read)**

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The ocean seemed much prettier than it had before. Sure, it probably looked the same as it had during the trip from Cloud town, but with company everything just seemed better. Plus I felt a whole lot safer sailing with two monsters to protect me from the ones that dwelled below sapphire waves. Downside of company, was that the boat was small and cramped. There really was not a whole lot to do and I couldn't just pull out my phone in front of Zoro and Luffy, so I spent a lot of time napping, like I was now.

"Hey, Fae!" I grunted in my sleep, opening my eyes to glaring sunlight.

"Yeah?" my voice sounded hoarse with sleep, and I blinked rapidly trying to get used to the sun.

"I'm bored," Luffy latched onto me, hanging off my uninjured shoulder, making the unbearable heat even worse.

"Luffy, it's hot," I whined attempting to push him off. "Why don't you play with Zoro?"

"Don't you even think about it," Zoro glared at me from the other side of the boat. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Go back to your nap, Marimo." _Oops, stole Sanji's nickname._

"Humph." The eloquent swordsman closed his eyes going back to sleep, his swords clenched to his sides like a security blanket, which just gave me an adorable image of a baby zoro sleeping with tiny model katanas. I snickered.

"What's so funny?" Zoro opened one eye questioningly

"Nothing, go back to sleep cabbage head."

"Hey, tell me, Fae, I'm so bored." Luffy interrupted my staring match with the swordsman, clinging on to me once again. Suddenly, an idea came to me, this was a technique I had utilized to fend of my younger cousins when they became antsy or ill-entertained.

"Luffy, if you let go, I'll tell you a story."

"A story?" He looked at me with an adorable puzzled face, Zoro also looked up from his end of the boat to stare at me with his dark eyes.

"I don't like reading it's boring."

Luffy crossed his arms over his chest pouting.

"Ah but listening is a whole new experience." I winked, internally disagreeing with my statement reading was just as fun as listening.

"The one I'm telling is a good one, it has adventure."

Luffy eyes turned into sparkles, and I knew that he was hooked.

"Adventure?"

"Yeah, it has gods and goddesses, too."

"I don't believe in god."

"Shush Marimo, don't ruin the story," I gave him a teasing look of mock anger.

"Shh Zoro I want to hear this." Luffy waved his hand dismissively at the swordsman, looking at me expectantly making it a cue to begin.

The ocean waves were a deep blue, they bobbed our little boat in a calming up down motion as I began to tell my story.

 _Once upon a time, there was a young boy. He was what one might call a problem child, a nuisance, freak. Danger seemed to follow this boy wherever he went, which made him unlikable to his peers. Isolated from society, he was treated as nothing when in reality he was radically different from others, not because he was strange, but because he saw things from another world. A world of ancient heroes, forgotten monsters, and all powerful gods. This boy was strong, stubborn and morally set, and gifted with incredible powers and a terrible fate. Unknown to him he would be the hero who would save not only our world, but the world of myth. This is where our tale begins._

I proceeded to tell my crew mates the story I had pretty much memorized by heart. Of course I added my own dramatic flare waving my arms around to emphasize points, and changing my tone of voice to match each character. When we got to the part where Percy's mom had been "killed" by the Minotaur, Luffy interrupted.

"That stupid cow, I'll smash it up." his eyes turned to fire.

I laughed while Zoro sweat dropped.

"Luffy don't worry, Percy will handle it."

Luffy wasn't listening though.

"I'll beat that cow up, and eat it!" He roared and raised his arms to the sky as he stood up.

"Luffy sit back down!" Zoro yelled as the motion rocked are tiny boat violently, throwing me to the floor.

He paused looking contemplative

"Ah I'm hungry!" Both Zoro and I sweatdropped.

"Eh Fae give me food. I need food!"

"Sorry captain, we ran out a long time ago." I picked myself off the boat's floor wincing as the motion pulled at my wound. It was true, the rations Sylvie had packed for me had long since been depleted, along with the supplies from Shells town. I wasn't to worried though, even if it was really discouraging knowing that my crewmates had such little sense of navigation. Any minute now, a really big bird would fly by, and then we'd be on our way to meet Nami, and hopefully restock on supplies.

"Luffy If you want you can stare at the sky, I heard a story once that birds made of meat live around here." I gave a mischievous grin and almost bust out laughing as Luffy's eyes lit up in excitement, and he whipped his head around to stare intently at the sky. Zoro in the background snorted in amusement.

Luffy now occupied, I laid back down careful of my shoulder, bunching my pack underneath me as a pillow. I rubbed a hand over my throat, the constant talking leaving it dry and I really wished, we had water.

"Ouch!" Something poked into my back, and I shifted around trying to find the source. With my good arm I pulled out the object from the bag, and stared intently at it.

"A Tessen, I didn't know you could fight." An air of surprise rested in Zoro's voice.

"I don't know if that was an insult or a question." I deadpanned, Zoro smirked in reply.

"I didn't know you knew other weapons that didn't have a sharp edge." I continued raising an eyebrow at the green haired man.

"You have your mysteries, I think I'm entitled to mine."

"Eh fair enough." The conversation ended, and left me with the chance to fully examine my gifted weapon. I unfolded it quickly, the weapon opening with a satisfying snap. The frame was made of a silver metal giving it a nice weight, and a cool to the touch feel. Securely fastened in between the frame spokes was white paper, but what I had thought before was plain white, actually gave way to shades of light blues and gray that billowed like smoke across the fan. I ran a hand to feel the paper, but it didn't feel right. It was sturdy and firm in shape, yet the texture beneath my hands was soft and rugged like canvas, not smooth like paper. It was unlike any material I had ever felt before.

I remembered Zale, he didn't seem like a bad guy the more I thought about him. He had given me a weapon to fight, and he certainly looked trustworthy. His white hair which I would normally think looked tacky, went well with his deep fire red eyes that glowed like the element itself. His toned muscles, and soft features were just so _UGH!_

 _I just totally judged the trustworthiness of a man by how he looks._ I slumped in despair throwing my limbs out, deserving the pain my wounded arm gave of. _Congratulations Fae now your shallow._

 _Well his eyes didn't seem to be evil._ My mind tried to justify my actions with one of the most weak arguments I'd ever heard in my life.

"Hey you okay?"

"Dandy." I replied sarcastically to the swordsman who I was surprised to find was still not asleep. Curious I shot a glance at Luffy and smiled out how intensely he was staring at the sky like he was willing the heavens to rain meat. It was adorable, and the concentration seemed to take so much effort that Luffy looked like he was in pain.

 _That is probably cuter than anything cute in existence._

I giggled behind my hand smiling at Zoro who looked away quickly when our eyes met, but I saw a hint of a smile on his own face.

"AH A BIRD!" Luffy stretched back his arms, an action I had discovered to be a little sickening in real life, since arms were really not supposed to bend like that. With flesh and blood detail Luffy's stretching reminded me of watching circus contortionists, really cool, but also incredibly terrifying and disgusting.

Luffy shot out of our boat, snapping with the tension of a rubber band straight at the bird.

"Ah help I'm stuck!" The bird started to fly away our Captain in it's beak, and Zoro jumped out of his relaxed position.

"You Idiot!"

The boat rocketed forward slamming me painfully into the back of the boat. "Owww!" White water sprayed behind us the ocean spray coating my skin, and put salt water in my mouth making me cough and gag, Zoro's impressive arm muscles rippled as he frantically rowed, our boat cutting through every wave as he yelled at Luffy. Struggling against the momentum of what could have been mistaken for a speedboat I noticed dark bobbing figures ahead.

"Hey Zoro, I think there's someone in the water."

"Huh?"

"Hey help us please." One of the men floating waved his arms as he spotted us tearing through the waves.

"You're going to have to jump in." Zoro growled as he kept his eyes on Luffy

"We can't stop," I finished for Zoro.

Zoro rowed like a madman, three dull thunks and a spray of water shot up. I dragged my bag out of the way, so it wouldn't get wet, gripping my fan as I stared at buggy's crew.

"What are you three a circus act?" I knew exactly what they were, but I couldn't help making a quip.

"How dare you, you wench!"

"Well excuse me, normally guys don't wear polka dots, unless…"

"DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" the three pirates screamed in unison, and I laughed.

"You people almost killed us!" One of the guys wearing a funky black hat with ear coverings stood up

 **Shink**

He drew a sword and pointed it at me, "You going to turn this ship over to us now, and…"

 **Whap! Thunk! Smack! Slam!**

I lowered my fan back to my side, as Zoro took a comfortable seat glaring at the whimpering men, who were sporting bruises and bumps, rowing like their lives depended on it.

"Row faster we have to catch our captain." Zoro's eyes glanced to the sky, before turning back to our new servants a thoughtful expression on his face,"How did you guys even end up out there?" he asked.

"An orange haired busty thief." My answer shocked the three rowing men who gave me looks of shock and awe, while they continued to row.

"Pretty girl, are you a witch?" The shortest of the clown trio looked up at me his eyes filled with awe and fear. I grinned back, the three gulped adam apples' bobbing.

"Seriously how do you know all this stuff?" Zoro was looking at me suspiciously, his eyes were narrowed. "Did you eat a Devil Fruit."

"Nope I'm a Psychic."

"Right…" he gave me a skeptical look and I rolled my eyes.

"Believe what you what you want to cabbage head." he grunted in response, and I sighed. What was really so hard about believing I was psychic, for heaven's sake our captain is made of rubber! I gave up though, Zoro was stubborn, and throughout the series had denied believing in god, so spiritualism probably fell under that category. I took a seat on the floor, avoiding the puddles of water splashed all around.

There was probably more of a chance he'd kiss Sanji then admit god existed. _I'd wonder how he'd react if I told him about Zale, and how I actually know this stuff?_ Which reminds me, I hadn't seen Zale since Shells town, hadn't he promised we'd talk soon?

"You guys will be in so much trouble when you meet Captain Buggy." One of the clowns muttered under his breath.

"Who?" Zoro's question shocked the men.

"You mean you've never heard of the fearsome Buggy the Clown!"

"Oh big red nose." I smacked my fist into my open palm, as horrified expressions fell over the men's faces, apparently Buggy was more sensitive than I remembered about his nose.

"You're really creepy, you know?" Zoro said an intense and unreadable look on his face.

"You have no idea." I gave him my most evil grin, Zoro shifted away from me slightly.

"Well let's go!" I threw a fist in the air, my companions sweatdropped, as we continued speeding across the ocean.

 **-o-**

"Wahoo we made it!" I jumped out of the boat, my backpack pulling me slightly of balance.

"Somehow, I thought you were mature." Zoro sighed as he grabbed my uninjured arm firmly, steadying me.

"Eh, I go through phases." His hand was surprisingly gentle against my skin, but I could feel rough callouses from constant training that covered his palm. His hand rested on my arm, it wasn't a tight grip, but there was really no need for the hand anymore.

"You can let go anytime now."

He turned red, "We have to find Luffy." Abruptly Zoro turned away and stormed into the town before us.

 _He's so hilarious to tease._

Orange town, if I remembered correctly this is what this place was called. "Oh wait Zoro give me a second."

I ran back towards the boat scaring the three clowns who had just started moving again.

"AGH! you witch what do you want?" The black hatted crew member jumped back shielding himself with his arms.

"I'm not a witch, I'm a psychic," I pouted, "And I just came back to thank you guys and ask you a favor."

"You..you're... thanking us!" The third man who I'd never heard speak shouted in surprise.

"Well yeah, you guys did a lot of rowing for us." The henchman, didn't really seem all that bad maybe a little misguided and gullible, but I knew a lot of people who were far worse.

"So thanks." I gave them a hurried bow and ran back to Zoro.

 **Thump!**

I turned back around,

"What are they doing?" I asked Zoro as we observed the three grunts collapsed into twitching mounds of flesh on the dock, one of them was muttering intelligibly, and another was bleeding from his nose.

"Who knows." Zoro answered, his face pulled into a frown as I turned to look at him.

"Will they be okay?"

Zoro scowl morphed into an unreadable face.

"Just leave them, the Morons will be fine."

Before I could ask another question Zoro grabbed my forearm and dragged me into the town.

"Ow Zoro! Let go!" The green haired swordsman ignored me as he dragged me down the streets of the town. His grip was definitely going to leave a bruise, but nothing I could say or do would make him release me.

I sighed and winced as we made a sharp left turn. "Zoro stop!"

I dug my heels into the ground, my black boots sinking comically into the soil, and digging up piles as Zoro continued forward.

"You don't even know where you're going!" I yelled in frustration wriggling against his firm grip.

He paused his hand still clenched around my wrist. We stood there in silence, before Zoro turned to look at me. His eyes were shadowed, and he looked a little pale.

I felt like face planting at his stupidity, "Face it Zoro, we're hopelessly lost."

"Shut it story girl, this is your fault!" His eyes turned ferocious, as he cheeks burned red in embarrassment.

"Oi cabbage head, you don't get to yell at me, you're the one who was running through town like a bull in a china shop!"

My temper flared at the swordsman, even if the man was one of my idols, I wasn't about to take any crap from him. Especially after he'd just dragged me around a pirate occupied town, with no clue where he was going.

I pulled my fan out of the side pocket of my bag, realizing that smacking him with my bare hand might do myself more harm than him.

Before I could even smack the stubborn man a whistling sound sounded off in the distance.

 **Boom!**

My eyes widened, as a section of the town in front of me exploded in a ball of orange and red fires.

"Watch out!"

Before I could even move, I felt strong arms wrap around me my vision blocked, as bits of flaming wood from the explosion rained down on us.

My eyes were shut tight, as strong arms hugged me closer. I breathed in the scent of alcohol, and salty ocean water.

We stood there for a couple seconds before I realized what was happening. _Oh my god! Zoro's hugging me._

I let out a little squeak.

"Hey are you okay?"

The arms were gone, the air rushing in felt cold even though the climate was tropical.

"Yeah… I'm fine." I stuttered avoiding the worried looks from the swordsman.

"Thanks." I said quietly still avoiding Zoro's eyes.

"Don't worry about it." Zoro was dismissive of my thank you, more focused on taking in the damage behind him.

"Well let's go." flipping our positions from before, I grabbed his arm and started dragging Zoro behind me towards the source of the explosive projectile.

"Huh why are we…"

"It's Luffy," I answered and pulled harder, careful to keep my grip a little loose on his arm.

"How do you know that?"

Zoro asked, even though he was letting me pull him along without resistance.

"One you've had to realize by now the boy is a trouble magnet." Zoro's face turned into a grimace as he realized I was right.

"Second Buggy the man occupying this island is famous for his destructive cannonballs." I turned a corner approaching the launch site. As we turned into the open space I finished my statement.

"And third, I'm a psychic."

Zoro blinked a little in the sudden light, as I looked at the scene in front of me.

"Oh Zoro, Fae you're here!"

Luffy smiled and waved from the cage he sat in, while the rest of the people in the square simply stared.

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 **How do you like the little Zoro interaction I threw in there? I'm not set on a true pairing yet (if I even want to set Fae up with anybody) and again if anyone has any views on this please review, or message me. I take your input very seriously, since I have the worst decision making skills ever.**

 **Thanks for reading**

 **-Crystal Night**


	6. I Don't Hate you

**Happy New Years!**

 **Sorry for the late update, second quarter of school is always the worst. I think I'm going to change from updating this story every week to every other, seeing how I can't handle my school work, basketball, and this story, as well as I thought. I'm really sorry about this, I wish I could just spend every moment writing, but alas life is a bitch.**

 **To CrystalSeker: Thank you so much for your review. Don't worry in no way have you offended me, and you made some really great points. Seriously, the fact that you took the time to write me that long passage is inspiring to me as a writer, and definitely won't make me hate you. I see your point in making this story less focused on romance, and not making anything official to much later. Because I agree that the blushing, cute scenes, and denial of the relationship, is the most interesting part. I also agree that some guys just won't work with Fae, and I think I'm going to take your advice in not making anything official for a while.** **And again thank you for the ideas.**

 **To Sarah: Thank you for the review, and I'm sure Fae appreciates your pity. I'm planning on making her and Sanji's meeting interesting to say the least.**

 **I'm still open to other ideas about my romance element to this story, if you guys have pairings, or anything else to suggest, I take every review to heart.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Piece**

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"Hey Captain!" I waved at Luffy his smile grew even wider, while the Circus stared at us.

And when I say Circus, I mean Circus. The people surrounding us were dressed similarly to the henchman who helped us from before. They all looked like one big Circus act, some wearing stripes, or polka dots, weird hats, or funky hairstyles, and just generally looking like circus clowns.

"Fae look," Luffy waved his arms excitedly in his cage, while everyone remained frozen by our sudden entrance, "I found us a Navigator." He pointed at a woman with bob cut, orange hair, and a white and blue striped T-shirt.

 _Nami._

I recognized the girl instantly.

"Really!" I smiled genuinely, Nami was a pretty awesome character and really scored some points for the females in this story. I liked her as a character, even if I never believed in the whole LuNa shipping, honestly romance between members of the straw hat crew just never made sense to me.

Remembering I had to act like I'd never met her before, I yelled across the clearing,"Nice to meet you! What's your name? I'm Fae." the shout seemed to unfreeze the cat burglar.

"Hey I never said I was joining your crew!" The Navigator moved away from the cannon and rounded on the straw hat boy. Luffy simply smiled even wider, as Nami continued to yell at him and call him a moron.

"Hey Hey Hey," an annoying drawling voice broke over the one sided argument.

Nami instantly tensed, "oh crap." She cursed out loud.

"Hey Nami, what happened there, I thought you were betraying your boss, why are you trying to save him?" The evil clown seemed pleased with the new outcome, a knowing smirk on his face. He ignored, me and Zoro instead focusing on terrorizing the navigator.

"Ah hehe I can explain that Buggy-sama."

"Oh it's big red nose." I kept my voice even, while Buggy made a strangled choking noise. I didn't feel all too bad poking at the guy's sore spot, seeing how I really didn't like the clown. I didn't hate any of the One Piece characters, Oda was good at making even villains have redeemable qualities. He just annoyed me, how he stole all of Luffy's credit after Marineford (not that Luffy cared).

Everyone in the square had frozen (except for Zoro, he just looked confused) again, but this time in horror. Buggy shook where he stood, and I noticed the knives he clutched between his fingers. _Oops_

"How dare you, you wench!" Buggy lunged at me forgetting about Nami and Luffy. Part one of distract clown plan achieved, now for step two, Don't die.

"Ahhh! Zoro help!" I jumped away from his attack, and dodged diving to the floor to avoid a flying hand full of knives. I rolled quickly as the hand full of knives attempted to repeatedly stab me. Yeah I was really going to regret not thinking the plan through.

 **Clunk** bumping into a bunch of wooden crates, I hissed as the movements tweaked my injured shoulder.

As a sports player, of any kind you're bound to get injuries, that you have to ignore in the heat of a game. I was completely used to ignoring it, in the moment and dealing with the bull shit later. Once in a basketball game I had fractured my nose, and continued playing until adrenaline just couldn't cut it any more. If I could last a couple minutes with far less adrenaline then I had now, I would damn well last long enough to escape sudden death.

I looked around dodging another whizzing hand, trying to tune out Buggy's annoying cackles. The stupid swordsman had disappeared somewhere, probably to fix the problem Nami was having with a cannon and henchman. Well I'd lost my personal monster of protection, time to improvise. I stopped in the middle of the square brushing away blood from a cut on my cheek courtesy of one of Buggy's knives, and raised my arms in surrender.

"Stop it Big nose, I'm sorry." I spoke evenly.

"ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO FIX IT." Buggy's henchman yelled in unison, as Buggy turned an impossible shade of purple. Well I wasn't the best people person, at least I tried.

"Blehh," I was a strong believer in if I'm already in trouble, than just roll with it, there's not much worse that can happen.

"SHE JUST STUCK OUT HER TONGUE!" A henchman wearing a striped pantsuit collapsed in a puddle of terrified tears, his crewmates looked no better.

"Stay still you wench!" Buggy shrieked still grape purple.

"Oh crap!" A thrown knife whizzed over my head making a thunking sound as it hit a wooden pole. I jumped over the low flying hand that followed in making a strange air dive, to avoid being hit by either.

"Yehahaha," Buggy cackled maniacally as I batted away a knife with an open fan, (Bless my reflexes)

"You're not fazed by my powers." Buggy mused out loud "So you know about my devil fruit, huh girl?"

"Chop Chop fruit right?" I panted relieved that his assault ended with his monologues.

"Yes I'm a man undefeatable by swordsman." Buggy cackled, as Zoro looked away from Luffy who was still stuck in his cage.

"Oh really."

Zoro's eyes changed, burning at the challenge, and I fumed silently. _Oh sure ignore the girl about to die, but pay attention when he insults your pride._ "Zoro it is so not the time to get into a cockfight." I whined, the swordsman turned red, while Nami snickered.

"Shut up you witch!" Zoro yelled turning to Nami who broke into even more giggles.

I wasn't doubting Zoro's power, but at this point in time Zoro couldn't beat Buggy with his swords. And I was not willing to use my limited medical skills again. Plus it was satisfying verbally assaulting him, seeing how he LEFT ME TO DIE!

"Just get Luffy!" I yelled at Zoro.

"Oooo Fae do you have a plan?" Luffy looked excited clapping his feet, while Zoro picked up his cage.

"Hold it right there!" Buggy yelled out.

Zoro looked at the clown unimpressed, while Nami gaped at his feat of strength.

"You came for my head didn't you, Roronoa Zoro?" Buggy had a sinister look on his face, that majorly screamed stranger danger signals in my head. I wasn't about to comment on that though, at least with his attention on Zoro his grudge on me had been forgotten.

"Nah I'm not interested, I quit being a Pirate Hunter." Zoro turned away, hoisting the cage and motioning at Nami to follow.

"But I am interested, If I kill you, I'll become even more famous." Buggy grinned maniacally, and I cringed at the creep factor the look gave off.

"Zoro don't even think about it." I cut the man off, before he could do something stupid. "He's a separation man, he can't be cut." Zoro's eyes widened slightly in realization, while Nami's mouth dropped open.

"He's a devil fruit eater? I thought those were myths." She gasped

"What is he some kind of monster?" Luffy tilted his head as Zoro twitched.

"We don't need to hear that from you!" Zoro looked up at our captain as he yelled.

"Pfff!" I clamped a hand to my mouth, "Guh Ha HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I couldn't hold my laughter back. Ahh Luffy, that joke was always going to be hilarious, no matter how many times I'd heard it.

"Is she okay?" I heard Nami whisper to Zoro, over my own laughter.

"No." Zoro deadpanned

"Shishishi Fae is funny."

In the distance I heard Buggy start to rant about something, but I was to caught up with my giggling to care.

"Ha ha.. So are you Captain, and screw you Cabbage head." I clutched my sides taking deep calming breaths.

"Hey how dare you ignore me, I'll flashily dispose of you. Get them!" Buggy roared, scaring his men into action.

"RAGH!"

"Hey Miko what's your plan"

"What did you call me?"

"Plan first!" Nami yelled whacking Zoro over the head before he could answer my question.

"Well I was thinking of utilizing a tactical retreat." I said placing a finger to my chin, so I looked like I was pondering something deep and profound.

"Huh?" Luffy gave me a confused look.

"Get Them!" Buggy shrieked

"It means run like hell!" Clarifying my suggestion, I dodged a sword swing, and dashed down a random street.

"Hey what?!" Zoro looked momentarily lost, but at least Nami was fast. By the time he'd realized my plan, the two of us were a good couple of yards away.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT KIND OF PLAN!" He screamed as he rushed to follow us.

"A SMART ONE!" I yelled back at the swordsman, who had a dust cloud filled with our pursuers at his heels.

"Faster Zoro, YOSH!" Luffy pumped a fist in the air, sitting delightedly in his cage.

"Shut up or I'm dropping you here!"

 **-o-**

"Well that was fun…." I hunched over taking deep breaths of air into my lungs. Forcing myself to stand up, by putting my hands on the back of my head (Cross country trick opens your lungs for more air) I looked over at Zoro who was sitting in front of Luffy's cage attempting what looked like, a child poking at a hermit crab as he tried to stab the boy inside, who was shrieking in childish terror.

"Ummm?" I voiced out loud watching the odd scene.

"I think calling him a horse is what set him off." An annoyed yet slightly amused voice spoke up to my question.

"Yup that would do it." I giggled and turned to look at the orange haired thief.

"Oh, by the way I'm Fable, but you can call me Fae." I smiled and held out my hand to the other female who shook it.

"I'm Nami." Our new navigator gave a genuine grin, which made me smile even wider. Nami was really pretty awesome, in my opinion. Internal fangirl was squealing again, but I wasn't one of those crazy fangirls that you'd normally read about in my situation, I wasn't about to gush over there awesomeness and stalk them... Not a lot anyways.

"So when are you going to tell them you have the key to the cage." I kept my facial expression emotionless, as Nami looked at me in shock.

"You saw me swipe it?"

"Something like that."

She looked at me shock fading into awe, and then a dark smirk.

"Why should I help him, the idiot is a pirate."

 _Oh Nami…._ Her face had become unreadable, her eyes clouding with unspoken bitterness as she spat out the word of Luffy's chosen profession.

"He's not that bad. A little bit of a fool, but not bad." I felt the need to give the girl a hug like a mother would, even though we were probably the same age, she just looked so sad.

"Hmph." The hurt on her face was quickly masked away by a smile, even though dark emotions swirled in her eyes.

"Well I better return this then Pirate-chan." She twirled a silver key around her finger with a smirk, and sauntered over to the bickering males.

I felt a pang of sadness, at my title, It was to be expected though. I was a pirate and she hated pirates. _Stupid Arlong_ The son of a bitch shark was horrible to do something like turning a little girl into a mental traumatized woman.

I watched as Nami handed the key to Zoro who smiled darkly, as Luffy yelped and begged for forgiveness inside his prison. I turned around shaking my head in amusement, their antics even amidst my dark thoughts never ceased to amuse me.

"Hey Fae." A familiar voice spoke up from my side, and I looked to the source. Zale stood down an empty street motioning with a finger to follow him. I stood stunned for a moment staring at the red eyed man, before looking back at my crew. They had discovered a cute little dog who if I remembered correctly was named Chouchou. Than I looked back at the disappearing head of silver hair.

 _You son of a..._

and I ran to follow.

 **-o-**

"Well I think you're shaking things up nicely." Zale smiled leaning against a wall the only remains of a destroyed house.

Again we were standing in an abandoned street, but this time it was littered with large chunks of rubble from destroyed houses. It was one of those scenes you see after a dramatic movie battle, where abandoned and destroyed places are panned through slowly and dramatically by a camera.

"What do you mean?" I looked away from the destruction to meet bright red eyes.

"Well the swordsman is not hurt this time, the captain is out of his cage, and you're even trying to get Nami to open up, you've made quite a few changes" He cocked his head innocently, while his smirk was far from it.

"I didn't…." _Wait did I?_

"Whoops." I took a seat on a broken chimney rubbing my head sheepishly.

"Yeah, Whoops." Zale's smirk grew wider.

"Not like it matters right? This world isn't real." As soon as the words left my mouth I winced.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing, but Fae even in your world did you really feel the characters weren't real." His face was solemn now, and I couldn't help agreeing with him.

I was an easily scared child, couldn't even watch the slightest bit of horror without getting nightmares, and many times I'd cried over the deaths of fictional characters even in disney movies (and I'm 17). I was weak in real life, insecure like most teenagers, and reading and watching fictional worlds come out on top was how I coped with it. To me they had always been real. I idolized them, dreamed to be like them, to live the fairytale lives they did. I know I'm not perfect, I've got flaws I'm okay with them everyone does, but not here in this world everyone here was beyond imagination, and I was... just me.

 **Zale POV**

"Why am I here?" Zale was slightly shocked by how Fae's head hung in defeat, he could hear sadness in her voice, and he was slightly taken aback. Apparently the question from before had brought her back to this topic, but this time she wasn't angry at him. Zale found himself wishing that she would be.

"Pardon."

"Why did you bring me here, away from my family. Why would you bring me to a place with extraordinary people, when I'm just me…." She spoke to the ground and refused to meet his eyes.

"Because you're not." He didn't hesitate in his answer, as he looked down on the girl before him.

"Huh?" She looked up golden brown eyes sparked with confusion, hair getting statically stuck to her face in an adorable way. He resisted the urge to brush it away, resigned to smiling as she did it herself, silently cursing under her breath.

He'd spent years watching her that he knew she hated her hair, how it growed at an immensely slow pace and was a boring color, so she would never appear sophisticated or cool. Zale sighed, she lacked so much confidence that she used to have as a child, gone was the girl who climbed to the top of the monkey bars, or introduced herself with an outstretched hand and smile to random strangers. The world she lived in and the society she suffered had changed her. He'd watched her though, for so long he wasn't about to let her fall into a lesser form of self hate, He'd sworn on that.

"You're not ordinary." He bit back his tongue _Can't give away to much yet, I'm already in trouble as it is._

"How am I not?" Her eyes sparked with dangerous anger, voice filled with self aimed spite.

"I can't keep up with the monsters in this world, Hell even the normal people here can survive multiple explosions!" She looked angry, but in her eyes he saw a flash of her true emotions. He had the same "Gift" as Fae called it, he could see true emotions in one's eyes just like herself, and in her eyes, all he saw was fear.

"Well I appreciate you opening up to me."

"Wait huh…." Skin blushed scarlet, as she closed herself back into the shell of wariness, he felt a smile creep up his face, her shyness had always been endearing.

"I mean I'm impressed our relationship went from I'm going to kill you, to let's share our deepest secrets." He smirked, but inside he frowned. Zale knew he was being mean, and that wasn't what he was going for. He just needed her to leave her little dome of doubt, damn why hadn't he listened to Marcus during his people connecting lectures. Zale shuddered internally, he couldn't believe he was depending on that flirt to pull him out of the verbal hole he'd dug himself.

"I'm not…"

"We don't need to discuss this now." He waved it off, even after centuries of being alive, he couldn't handle this human's emotions, Huh the great demigod of raging fires himself afraid of a teenage girl, Lilith would have a field day.

"Anyways, I know you still want to kill me, just wanted to see if you were figuring out how to use the fan, and possibly recommend a teacher or an upgrade…"

"I don't want to kill you." Fae's hair shadowed her face as she looked at her feet, and he could barely see that she was biting her own lip, an interesting nervous habit.

"Huh?" _Great now I'm the one getting flustered._

"I was a little mad at first, but somehow you don't seem like a bad guy and you wouldn't bring me here without a reason."

He opened his mouth to reply, but the look in her eyes when she lifted her head again shut him up.

"I'm still not sure why I'm here, and obviously you're avoiding that topic so fine, but I don't hate you, and I think you want me to live for some reason."

Her voice hardened and eyes glinted with determination.

"So I don't want to kill you, and I'm not afraid of telling you about my worries, especially since you're the only one I can talk about them to!"

And Zale knew then he'd made the right choice all those years ago.

 **Fae POV**

I was a little confused with myself, why was I so angry at the guy. Sure I had been pretty mad before, but did the idiot really think I was so naive that I just spilled my guts to anybody. I wasn't those wishy washy girls that fell over and explained my life out to the first hot guy who listened, and the fact he could even think that I was pissed me off.

"HAHAHAHA!"

"Are you laughing?!" Oh forget what I said before, I am going to kill him. Zale had leaned back on the wall even head tilted back so he looked to the sky, as he laughed in such a damn hot way. I was probably twitching with rage, when he finally controlled himself.

"Well if you're done now, I'd like to…" I stood up done with this bull shit and ready to go back to my crew.

"I'll teach you."

"What?" I was starting to get annoyed, how many times was he going to just change the subject like this?

"You never cease to amaze me Fable Deliah Sun, so I look forward to being your master in Tessenjutsu."

"Stop doing that." I deadpanned and the bishounen just chuckled again, showing that he was completely aware of his annoying behaviour.

"Well it was fun." Zale stood up stretching in the sun, as his back left the wall.

"Wait what do you mean you'll be my teacher?" A sudden noise jolted me, and I jumped in the air turning to see a calico cat staring back at me from on top of a trash can. Calming my racing heart I turned back to Zale….. who was now gone.

 _He is so going to pay for this conversation._

Silently fuming I moved back down the path when I came from heading back to my crew.

 **-o-**

 _The Hell….._

I stood there frozen as I took in the destruction (more than I had left it) all around me, houses had been leveled by something big, and one of them looked like they had been sliced in half.

"I leave for one minute and of course all Hell breaks loose." I sighed turning, suddenly exhausted by life, I knew what happened Mohji and Richie had come along destroyed the pet shop…..

Gah the pet shop is still intact, and Chouchou is sitting in front of the one unruined building, a little beat up, but a lot less damage than a lion should have done, to a small dog. _Oh yeah Zoro was uninjured, and I think I freed Luffy prematurely from his cage._

I felt a little giddy realizing the good I had accomplished, and a little terrified. I knew how the butterfly effect worked, and my conversation with Zale made me remember, that I did a little more than just flap my wings. I had told Zale before that everyone is this world was extraordinary and that was true, the only reason I hadn't had a complete mental breakdown yet was that the knowledge of the future was a powerful weapon. Changing a little thing though, could change the future I know for better or worse. _But can I really stand by and not change anything._

I shook my head I could worry about this later, right now my friends needed me.

I drew my Tessen fan from my back pocket, and ran through the streets back to the place where I'd seen the freaky clown.

My mind wandered to the consequences of the change, if Nami never saw Luffy help Chouchou she wouldn't trust us as much as before, or if Zoro was uninjured well….. Actually I can't think of bad things from that. Maybe he won't learn from pain? That just sounds stupid.

Lost in thoughts, I unconsciously gripped my fan harder so that the metal folds left indents in my hand, and barreled out straight into the center of Buggy's operation.

The whole building was destroyed, and very few henchman remained, most that were still standing had various injuries that looked like they'd been in an explosion.

"Oi Miko what do you think you're doing!" Zoro yelled around the white handle of Wado, as his swords clashed momentarily with a creepy emo looking guy on a unicycle.

"What the hell is a Miko, and why the hell would you guys just leave me!"

"You left us first!"

 _Oh right._

"Sorry." I got no reply to my meek apology, as Zoro dodged a random sword swing.

"Whatever, just go help Luffy, or take care of these henchmen I've got this guy." Zoro growled after dodging Cabaji, who was incredibly mobile on his unicycle.

"Alright... Wait What?!" I knew Zoro would be fine Cabaji was nowhere near his level, and this time Zoro was uninjured. I was more worried about me.

"Oooo look what we have here, this one is pretty." I whirled around to face the source of the voice. It was one of the henchmen, this one had wide broad shoulders, bleach blonde hair tied up in a funky ponytail, and wore a striped yellow shirt. He carried a large looking sword, which he held up threateningly so it reflected the sun. He leered at me his mouth curved into a dangerous smirk.

"Why don't you stick around and play with us girly." He rolled the end of his sentence and I cringed in disgust.

"I'm not into clowns." I gritted my teeth slipping my backpack off putting it down.

"Well who said you had a choice." The man growled launching himself at me with an upraised sword. My knees trembled, instinct screaming to flee, instead I forced myself to wait for the last second before jumping away to the side.

I ducked and dove to the left underneath the swing ramming the bottom of my fan into the man's ribs earning a pained grunt. Unfortunately the blow only seemed to anger him. I wasn't very strong, but I was quick and had pretty good reflexes. I dodged his sword swings landing glancing fan blows angering him and bruising, before I rammed it into his temple effectively knocking him out.

After him others took his place, attacking me in pairs, and even though there was probably only four left in total I felt fear course through my veins, my endurance and adrenaline high keeping me mobile, dulling the pain in my injured left shoulder. I was lucky to take out any of these guys, I had barely any fighting experience and used their underestimation of my abilities to attack, but my luck wasn't going to last forever.

 **Duck, Roll, Swing, Block**

I fell into a rhythm, and managed to disable the others, with strikes to the head or...softer areas. Attempting to finish of the last one, a man with a striped party hat on, I was interrupted by a shriek.

"Unhand my treasures!" Buggy yelled as his upper half flew in the air making a straight path towards...

"Nami!" I yelled, momentarily distracted by the thief's plight, as the dismembered torso shot out towards her as she attempted to drag a heavy looking sack. Buggy clutched daggers in between each of his fingers, grinning madly as he neared the frozen girl.

I quickly slammed my fan into the party hat crumpling it and striking the man's head, but I was to far away to do anything for Nami. Didn't mean I wasn't going to try, I used my "must survive" adrenaline, to race across the square.

 _Come Come on almost there, just a few more steps._ A few more feet, and I could touch the clown with the tip of my fan, but cold realization settled in, I wasn't going to make it.

Then Buggy froze, he was floating within touching distance of the thief. His mouth was wide open in a wide strained grin, as sweat beads covered the rest of his face, and his eyes had squinted in pain.

Then he collapsed slamming hard to the ground, tears dripping from his eyes.

"My my… balls." His voice was abnormally high, and I felt relief flood from my system.

"Your battle's with me, leave her out of it." Luffy stood over the flailing bottom half of Buggy.

And I laughed, as I remembered what Luffy had done to Buggy, _that had to hurt._

"Oh man, Captain you're hilarious." I whispered under my breath, collapsing onto my butt as waves of exhaustion hit me. _I really need to get more strength, maybe I could ask Zoro for some exercises._

I laid down looking at the blue sky, white wispy clouds slowly drifting by overhead, while I listened to Nami argue with Luffy in the distance.

"No way am I leaving my treasures!" She shouted angrily at Luffy.

"You're not even trying to help them." A familiar figure covered my view of the sky.

"I was just taking a breather." I took Zoro's extended hand, pleased after doing a quick glance over, that he seemed uninjured beyond small nicks and bruises. I still attempted to get a closer look, to which the gruff man brushed my help irritably, away.

"Your Treasures!" An angry voice pulled my attention back to the fight.

"Ahh!" Nami jumped away, as Buggy sprang back up looking incredibly angry.

"You going to help them?" I questioned Zoro, as we both watched Buggy split himself into a barrage of pieces in a move that the clown titled chop chop festival.

"Nah it's character building."

I laughed "You have no idea what that means."

"Humph." The swordsman went back to his normal vocabulary.

I spotted a pair of feet on the ground not to far away from me, while the jumble of Buggy parts attacked our navigator and captain.

"Well I'm going to give them a quick hand."

I got a grunt of acknowledgement from the swordsman, which left me feeling conflicted, either he believed in my abilities to handle myself, or simply didn't care. Probably a mix of both if I really thought about it.

I walked over to the pair of feet, which unlike the other body parts, had remained firmly planted to the ground.

I cracked my knuckles, (The cool way) and grinned "This is going to be fun."

 **-o-**

"Remind me to never get on your bad side Miko." Zoro grumbled as he walked as far away from me as possible.

"Don't worry I reserve that kind of treatment for enemies only." I grinned evilly at him, drawing a laugh from Nami, while Luffy remained uncharacteristically quiet.

I felt oddly happy, after dealing with Buggy, using his feet as weak spots to dispose of the clown and eventually send the man flying, since I knew it was necessary endeavour for him. Plus it was shit ass funny thinking about the adventures mini Buggy was about to go through. Right now though, I had a depressed captain to think about.

"Luffy I can try and mend your hat if you want." I smiled at my captain who lit up in joy.

"Really!"

"Well I know the basics of sewing, and it's your treasure right?" I held out a hand for the beaten straw hat that now had holes from Buggy's knives. I felt my smile grow wider, as Luffy lifted himself out of his somber mood. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing I'd been the one to cheer him up for once.

"Thanks Fae your the best!"

I smiled in return "No problem captain."

"How did you…"

"Don't," Zoro sighed cutting the orangette off, "Just don't ask."

"Blehhh." I stuck my tongue out at the swordsman.

"Just because you don't believe it cabbage head, doesn't mean everyone won't"

"Yeah Zoro, Fae's psychic stuff is really cool." Luffy smiled wide, his mood restored by my promise.

"Uhh what." Nami's mouth widened slightly in shock.

"Well yeah," I smiled at the orangette

"I'm a psychic."

"WHAT!"

* * *

 **THANKS FOR READING AND HAVE A GREAT 2017**

 **Still open to pairing suggestions for Fae, and reviews even just a few words are more encouraging than you could every imagine.**

 **-Crystal Night**


	7. Weakness of a Psychic

**AH So sorry I had no idea what happened to this chapter somehow it all glitched out on me. Anyway here is the actual chapter**

 **Thanks To Wizardsfantasy for catching the problem.**

* * *

With Nami in control of our ship, it started to feel like I was part of an actual crew. The woman was scary, and knew what she was doing. The combination of both these factors, resulted in us having a sense of direction on the sea, and the efficiency to get to the next island without starving. I seriously shudder to think what are crew would have been without her around. Nami was probably the most valuable member of the crew because, of her job in canon, and it was strangely reassuring that the fact remained true in "Fae screwed with the timeline world"(catchy name, I know).

Meanwhile my attempt at stitching Luffy's hat had ended with many bandaged fingers, and a very bruised self esteem. It was way harder then sewing normal clothes, also wasn't really sure how straw worked as string, so I ended up asking Nami for help. She did it without charging me(Thank Goodness), although it was creepy listening to her mumble darkly about debts to pirates and crazy monster men and psychic women, as she stitched.

Despite her greedy nature, I actually quite liked Nami. She was tough, fun to talk to, and smart. It was nostalgic talking with a girl, and we both sort of clicked together out of necessity of living with two men. We talked about our interests, and complained about living on a tiny boat.

Don't get me wrong I liked Luffy and Zoro and definitely classified them as friends, but the two were not the most normal people in the world. Nami on the other hand was far more similar to the humans from my world, something a girl who still believed in physics appreciated. She reminded me in many ways of Minerva: both were confident in their looks and outspoken, but Nami tended to be far more violent than my blonde friend.

We spent some time on an island with strange mismatched animals and a man who fell into a treasure chest. I vaguely remembered it being a filler in the anime which helped confirm my theory that the course of this world's future was going to follow the anime path, which was a good thing cause I'd never really gotten into the manga.

I spent a lot of time running and hiding with Nami on that island since there wasn't any major dangers to watch out for, and I was still limp noodle weak compared to my crew. I had no clue on how to use my Tessen fan, quickly discovering that adrenaline and wielding them like blunt sticks only got one so far.

Later when we boarded the boat again Nami asked me about my psychic abilities. I had invented some basic limits after noticing that Zoro was subtly (and Luffy not so subtly) were listening in. I told her I knew certain fragments of the future (knowing all of the future might have been a little scary to her and my memory especially of early arcs was fuzzy at best) and certain people's histories.

After her questioning I steered the topic to navigation, and when I asked to learn the basics, she'd become ecstatic. I knew Nami was a great Navigator, but now that I knew her as more than just a character on a screen you could really see how much she loved the topic. It kind of went over my head though, and it was somehow reassuring and discouraging at the same time to discover that I really was a city girl. Living half an hour away from DC didn't really require sailing knowledge of any kind.

It was way harder than I imagined, there were two different interpretations of north for heaven's sake, and then you had to take depth into account, learn how to read maritime navigational charts, learn ocean currents and wind direction. By the end of our brief lesson my brain felt like it had been washed, wrung out, and hung to dry.

"Ughhh. I can't!" I groaned after hearing about how different lines indicated different depths, and lied down with a thump on the wooden planks of the small boat.

"Don't be like that, these skills are all essential."

Nami frowned over me casting me in a shadow, the blocked light from the sun pouring around her figure gave it a very cliche glowing girl look.

"It's not my fault I've never been sailing before." I whined again sitting back up pleased to feel no pain in my arm. It had only been a little over two weeks since it had been shot, and knew I still had to be careful since it was not 100% healed, but the twinging pain would no longer be a factor in basic movement.

"How is that possible?" Nami looked at me with a look that was borderline suspicious.

"What do you mean?" Crap internally cursing my slip up, I smiled innocently at Nami who looked unimpressed. I'd been tiptoeing around any subject that might involve my past, and attempted to come up with a cover story. Fun fact you can learn from watching an unhealthily large amount of crime shows is that, the hardest part about telling a lie is keeping your facts straight. It was better to base my story with as much truth as possible to avoid future confusion, and I was in no way prepared enough for the emotions the crew's questions on the world I'd left behind might drag up.

"Well you lived on an island right, you had to have learned how to at least operate a boat as a basic safety precaution." Nami took a seat next to me nonchalantly.

"Hey I can operate..."

"You didn't know the difference between jibing and tacking, and you called starboard right." Nami looked unimpressed, and I curled in a little on myself. I had went to one summer camp that taught me how to operate a small sailing boat which was thankfully similar to Gild's fishing boat, but after discussing with Nami I realized just how lucky I'd been to get to Shell's town at all.

"I grew up on a really large island, it took you hours of travel to even get in sight of the ocean." I gave Nami a hesitant smile with my answer.

The answer sounded, and was scripted. I stood up quickly ignoring Nami's look of surprise, walking over to where Luffy sat attempting to avoid the questions Nami was on the verge of asking.

"Hey Fae whatcha doing?"

I snorted briefly reminded of a black haired, girl scout's attempt at flirting with her triangle headed crush.

"Not much, just finished my attempt at learning navigation."

I nodded slightly to Zoro who sat a little off from Luffy as a sign of acknowledgement, before taking a seat next to the monkey himself.

"Honestly you're all hopeless." Nami followed me fuming. "How on earth did you survive on the Sea at all with your navigational skills?!"

"Dumb Luck." I deadpanned

Zoro snorted in amusement and Luffy smiled and nodded showing his naive agreement.

"What kind of pirate crew is this, you can't navigate, and you don't even have a proper ship!?" Nami's familiar rage fizzled up and I instinctively inched away.

"Well I have a really good crew." Luffy unaware of the monster awakening braved on.

I felt myself smiling and agreeing with his words. Than I frowned as a bit of nostalgia from the feelings of friendship arose in me, I really missed Minerva and my family.

"You flatter us Captain." I spoke half heartedly, as painful memories rose up.

Luffy turned to me smiling before morphing the expression into a frown.

"Something wrong Captain?" I questioned out of courtesy turning to look behind me to open, wide oceans. The sight was really growing on me, even though the idea of the creatures that lived within in it still gave me nightmares.

"You're smiling funny." His voice shocked me out of my sea gazing and turning to face him I winced, the pout and childish whine which normally would have been endearing made me tense. I had gathered from the show that Luffy was an idiot, didn't mean it to be mean, it's just a fact that Luffy was not book smart and lacked basic common sense. But living with him, I realized that Luffy had moments of brilliance: he was emotionally smart, said the right things (instinctively or not), and he noticed details even if he didn't always comprehend their meaning.

"I'm sure you're just imagining things Luffy." I smiled reassuringly.

"No something's wrong." He stated it plainly his voice no longer whining, clear that it wasn't a question.

I opened my mouth to deny his claims, when something gently tapped my head. I turned to see Zoro holding Wado Ichimonji "You should tell us when things are wrong Miko."

I sighed, and watched as Nami perked up, a little too excited, as she realized I was about to share something of my life. I guess I could understand though, for someone like Nami knowing that another person (psychic or not) could possibly know things about her past made her feel vulnerable. Knowing information about that person would put her back onto equal footing and back in her comfort zone.

"I'm just feeling a little homesick." I smiled nostalgically.

"What kind of place is your home?" Luffy looked just as intrigued as Nami did for the answer.

I glanced over their expectant faces, threw my head back and laughed.

Nami POV

Nami was a pirate thief, plain and simple. She stole from pirates, she hated pirates, and she would never be one by her own free will. She had Arlong to thank for that.

Never in her time on the seas had her mindset changed she'd viewed every man under the jolly roger as a crook and scum of the earth, that is until she had met Luffy. Nami couldn't believe that someone so stupidly brave and unpredictable existed. She'd watched the strange straw hat kid fight a lion to protect a dog's treasure, watched him perform impossible feats, and chase after her until she relented to his demands.

He was different than any pirates she'd met, and his crew was just as intriguing. Somehow the kid had managed to tame Pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro, the demon of the East Blue.

Then there was the girl laughing in front of her: Fable Sun, was an enigma to say the least. She had the most common sense of the crew careful to ration food and supplies, yet let the boys' antics slide, laughing at most of them with her carefree smile that never seemed to go away. Nami liked the girl, she was nice, funny, and a girl (it'd been ages since Nami last talked to one that wasn't her sister). She found herself endeared to the way the girl was fond of making sarcastic quips, and hovered over the entire crew like a momma bear.

When Fae had seen her burnt hands, (Courtesy of Buggy's cannon) she had flipped out and fussed over them for an hour, bandaging them with careful fingers and comforting her like a child. Even if the action was slightly demeaning it brought up a nice feeling that Nami hadn't experienced in a long time.

But even if Nami liked her, Fae was still a pirate. When she'd learned Fae could see people's past as well as future, it left her feeling quite exposed. She didn't miss the careful tenderness Fae approached her with, and while that might have just been her personality, the information made her unconsciously read into the action. But if Fae knew her past then why hadn't she warned Luffy and Zoro, why would she ask Nami to teach her navigation, or share details of her powers with the thief at all? Fae was incredibly confusing amongst her long list of character traits and now Nami was considering adding crazy to the list as the girl laughed at a simple question.

"Sorry, sorry," Fae wheezed out between laughs.

"Miko you're freaking creepy." Zoro deadpanned, and Nami couldn't help but silently agree.

"The whole reality, just settled in." She gasped out taking deep breaths to control her laughter.

"How about I tell you about my home when we enter the Grand line." She was serious now, and Nami twitched at one of the most bipolar actions she'd ever witnessed. Fae was still smiling, but as someone who smiled and played nice for a living, Nami could see a sadness in the girl's golden brown eyes.

Fae didn't wait for a reply, instead turning to face Nami which made the thief tense. Those unnaturally bright eyes always seemed to look straight through her. Like they could see every bad thing she'd ever done, every night she had cried and cursed the mark tattooed on her shoulder.

"So navigator, what's our next stop?" The forced cheerfulness was visible, but Nami ignored it out of sympathy. Fae obviously had zero experience hiding emotion, seeing how even Luffy was wearing a face of worry.

She sighed, why did this bother her so much anyway? It's not like she really knew these people. More importantly, Nami couldn't afford to care about a confusing ragtag bunch of pirates. She'd be gone as soon as they got enough treasure, never to see this crazy crew again.

"Well we obviously need supplies." She sighed.

"I can't believe you guys are pirates without a ship, or anyway of watching your supplies." This time annoyance and anger filled her voice. Seriously these idiots had no common sense, and Fae was to laid back to force the men back into shape.

"Yeah Nami, I'm tired of fruits, I need meat!" Luffy yelled excitedly, seriously did the boy never run out of energy? It seemed to be as plentiful as his stupidity.

"I want Sake." A tick mark formed on her head, who knew the feared demon Pirate Hunter Zoro was a bumbling fool who couldn't tell North from up?

"Don't worry," Fae soothed in a calm tone, "We'll be at Gecko Island soon." Announcing the name of the island before Nami even got the chance (And she hadn't even decided on the destination until a few minutes ago).

And this one was just plain old creepy, seriously why did she decide to even temporarily join this crew!?

-o-

Fae POV

Nami, dissolved into a puddle of despair, probably overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity of our crewmates. It's not like I really helped her cope with that... Oops.

After listening to her little rant I took some quiet time to myself, sitting down and reading a book itching to take out my phone and have access to kindle. I was okay with talking to people, but wasn't an extrovert like Minerva I needed some me time every day and even if I loved spending time with the crew I could only handle so much crazy.

I shifted away into the corner of the boat wedging myself in between the wooden planks. Zoro slept on the opposite side, or at least attempted to, as Luffy pestered him with random poking and nonsensical questions. If we didn't get a bigger boat soon someone was going to end up murdering our hyperactive captain.

Nami was in the tiny cabin (which I thought looked more like a shack) counting her money. She had been on a warpath for a while, when she realized Luffy had left behind one of the sacks of treasures for the villagers of Orange town. I thought it was very kind of Luffy, but Nami was still very pissed. I felt a little bit guilty doing it, but right now I was using her as a wall to avoid further questioning. Luffy still seemed to traumatized to come within a foot of the cabin, a fact that greatly limited his stretch space on our incredibly tiny boat, and right now I was glad, I didn't know if I could handle his cheerful attitude right now.

A gnawing anxiety was starting to fill me and reading was always a good distraction, but that only worked with dread after losing a basketball game, or stress about grades, this problem was way out of the other problems' leagues.

Homesickness,

that's what this was. I missed home so much, the earlier conversation had brought the feeling I'd been attempting to suffocate right back up to the surface. I also knew for a fact that Nami wasn't going to drop the topic.

Wonder, what Mom was doing right now. Had she panicked when I had never came home? I Imagined her calling Dad frantic with worry and asking Cole if he'd seen me. Maybe Dad had comforted her with his seemingly undying faith in his children as Mom threw wild accusations around, of me skipping school, or running off with a boy (Two things that had never even crossed my mind in my entire life). Who was I kidding though, they both were probably worried out of their minds seeing how their daughter had been missing for three weeks now!

Fighting back the stinging sensation in my eyes, and the urge to curl up into a fetal position, I focused on the words on the page finding comfort in their familiarity even as the letters swam from teary eyes.

Well normally anyone in my situation might be ecstatic, Fae why are you complaining, you're living with amazing characters in an awesome world. To those who are thinking that here's my answer,

Sure reading stories about people falling into different worlds was entertaining, doing the falling not so much. I'm not an invincible anime character that can tough through anything. One bullet wound is enough to stop me, and I don't realistically think believing I can do it will change a damn thing. In real life, that's just asking to be beaten into a pulp, there is no magic main character rule to save you.

That wasn't the only thought that scared me though, the real fear was that me being in this world might end up hurting someone else. I'd known that I was weak it just never occurred to me that my weakness might affect others. When it was just myself being weak was okay, now with this crew lives depended on my abilities weakness was no longer acceptable. If Luffy or Zoro got hurt in an attempt to protect me what then? I would have just killed a major character, literally fucking up the entire timeline of this world.

 _"Not like it matters right? This world isn't real."_

 _"It's not necessarily a bad thing, but Fae even in your world did you really feel the characters weren't real?"_

Zale's words rang through my head.

These characters weren't just figments of someone's imagination anymore, they were real people. I had to admit that right now I was using them to achieve my own selfish goal. Didn't that make me no better than Crocodile manipulating Baroque works to do his bidding, granted I'm not a bloodthirsty shichibukai, but still you get the idea.

After listening to Zoro's conviction, Luffy's unwavering confidence, or even Nami's spunk, I felt lightyear's behind. Only thing me joining the crew was doing was slowing them down. I hadn't even done anything great to get on this crew, just preyed on the fact that Luffy was "join my crew" trigger happy.

I closed my book, and stared up at the dimming sky tilting my head to peer over the endless sea. The sun setting on the horizon painted the ocean in hues of reds and oranges, the colors slowly bleeding into dark midnight blue as the sun slipped away under the ocean waves. The rocking motion that kept had me up late at night the first week, soothed me to sleep.


	8. Liars and Children

**Hi Chapter 8 is up!**

 **It's really short and I** **apologize for that, but I've recently been caught up in editing the previous chapters. I've discovered that I take forever to get through the plot and add way to many unnecessary details. After this chapter I will attempt at condensing it so I can actually progress through the story line.**

 **Reviews and likes are extremely appreciated and again motivate me to update. If anyone has any questions or criticism I'm willing to hear it, and also anymore views on a possible pairing for Fae would be appreciated.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, basically anyone but Fae and Zale**

* * *

 _What do you wish for?_

 _I'm going to be a hero, fighting for justice and always doing the right thing. I'll be someone everyone's looks up to!_

 _That's a big goal._

 _Well I'm going to make it happen._

 _I don't doubt it Fairy._

Warm gentle, and oddly familiar laughter echoed in the dark, as voices spoke through murky darkness. It was a little girl, and a man their hazy glowing silhouettes illuminating the dark.

I reached out a hand toward the scene, straining to see more, the figures grew brighter and brighter until I could almost see them...

 **Bonk**

"Ow!" Blinding light replaced the murky dark as my eyes shot open.

"Oops sorry." A sheepish looking navigator leaned over where I slept rubbing the back of her neck, as Luffy's familiar laughter rang in the distance.

I held my hand to my head. "Ugh what happened?"

Nami laughed guiltily, and I inwardly sighed, I wasn't going to like the answer.

"I was aiming for Luffy." Nami smiled her flirtatious "I can get away with anything smile," and this time I sighed out loud.

"Okay sure whatever." Unclenching my throbbing head, I sat up.

"Oh look an island." My monotone voice made the Navigator flinch. She probably thought I was angry at her, but really I was just too tired to give a shit.

Standing up, I shuffled sleepily, wobbling with the boat towards my bag. Pulling it open I grabbed a tiny blue notebook opening it to a page near the middle.

 _ **Plan on how to deal with Kuro**_

I read, shaking my head and blinking rapidly to shake of the last clutches of sleep. Stretching my back like a cat I let out a groan at the stiffness, I couldn't wait until we got the Merry, I really wanted the space and to sleep in a bed again.

Turning attention back to the little note book, my eyes watered processing the tiny words. A night after the island with the man in the treasure chest, I decided to attempt and plan for upcoming dangers. After doing a wing it job with Buggy I felt it necessary for my own safety, and the crew's, if I knew exactly what I wanted to do beforehand. Writing was also a very soothing pastime of my mine, that took my mind off of present troubles, something I had in spades.

 _ **1\. Help Kaya with her depression**_

This was probably not in my realm of abilities, but I at least wanted to spare the nice girl from the harsh betrayal of her butler. Maybe find a better way to break it to her then her other butler bleeding out on the floor.

 _ **2\. Prevent Usopp from getting shot**_

After my own experience, I never wanted anyone else to feel that pain. Realistically with my crew that wasn't going to happen, but it didn't mean I couldn't try. I was also trying to find a way to have Usopp not be wounded by his town's people's words as well, but it was necessary to the story. Luffy wouldn't help Usopp defend his village, if he didn't demonstrate his own resolve. Worst came to worse I could probably just bribe Luffy to help, but that left the chance open that Luffy wouldn't invite Usopp to join his crew.

 _ **3\. Make sure we set the ambush up at the right side!**_

That had been a big issue in the show, and it did allow Usopp to demonstrate his resolve, but he had ended up extremely hurt. It wasn't worth it though, and it would allow less injuries to happen to the crew as a whole if we had organization from the beginning.

 _ **4\. Don't Die!**_

With a whole pirate crew to deal with, and a guy with knife gloves, this was somehow very important to me (imagine that).

"Hey Miko, get up and help us dock!" Zoro called from the boat, drawing my attention to the land right before us. The waters had turned lighter in shade as we got closer and closer, light brown sand visible at the bottom. I pushed my notebook into my back pocket, and shuffled through my backpack for my fan.

I'd been practicing getting used to the feel of the weapon. I hadn't gotten up the courage to ask Zoro, or even Nami, for help yet, and there wasn't a whole lot of room on the little boat to do any serious workouts. Instead, I spent time tossing the fan around in my hands, and snapping it open so many times my fingers began to cramp. The hard work paid off, I could toss the closed fan in the air and get five solid rotations before catching it's handle, and snapping it open was almost instantaneous.

I stood up playing absentmindedly with the weapon flashing the white paper open and closed with one hand while the other fiddled with the jade pendant on my neck in nervousness, Zoro gave me a look.

"Stop that, it looks like your signaling for help."

I gave him an annoyed glare, drowsiness from my recent awakening made me less agreeable, but I still released the necklace and forcefully gripped the fan close with the hand, to appease the green haired man.

"Wahoo, look it's an Island!" Luffy danced shaking our little craft, before Nami smashed his head into the wood.

I turned back to the shoreline, Zoro had hopped out of the boat, the waves brushing against his dark green boots as he tied a rope to a nearby rock. The boat beached halfway on the sand with a slight bump, that had me compensating with a wider stance for the motion.

"Yipee We're finally here!" Luffy jumped up again seemingly unaffected by the first blow, his movement shook the halfway secure boat. I put a hand on Nami's shoulder to prevent the girl from murdering our captain, after she narrowly avoided falling into the sea.

"Forget about it, let's just go." I gave her a weary smile which she replied to with a growl.

"I'm going to drown that rubber head." I patted her back consolingly as her fingers twitched murderously, and followed Luffy. My legs trembled a little at the sudden solidness, unlike my companions as a landlubber I had really bad sea legs. The sudden loss of rocking movement left me overcompensating to the ground.

"Ooph." I collapsed to the ground, as Luffy attempted to wrap an arm around my shoulder.

"Ehh? Fae what's wrong, why'd you fall over?"

 **Bang**

"Thanks Nami." I stood up shakily, attempting to get accustomed to the solid earth.

Our navigator flashed me a grin, as she stood over our fallen Captain who now sported lumps on his head.

I breathed in air, relishing in the smell of forest, earth, and trees. I normally wouldn't have been able to smell it, but spending time smelling only salty sea water, I overcame my past nose blindness. Knees only slightly trembling now, I started to speak.

"Let's go get some supplies." I looked back at Nami and Zoro, who nodded their assent.

I took a step back to allow Luffy to lead, he was the captain even if he was an idiot, it would be rude not to follow him. Plus I didn't want to be the target of Usopp's pachinko. Better to let the bullet proof man be my shield.

Zoro stretched groaning with the movement, "It's been awhile since I've been on land." he yawned.

"Yeah, it's nice." I agreed as my knees finally stopped trembling.

"Meat! Meat! Meat!" Luffy chanted as he walked forward, his face decorated with his usual bright grin.

I took in my surroundings, the entrance to the village was a ramp like walkway surrounded on both sides by sheer forest covered cliffs, it made an ideal place to ward off intruders. One could simply hide in the trees and pick them off as they walked up the stone and dirt incline. I smiled, this island was perfect for Usopp, it was even designed for snipers to defend.

 **Shunk**

Zoro clicked open one of his swords.

"Careful, Someone's here." His voice was dead serious. I flinched in reaction to the warning, while Luffy had an entirely different approach.

"Huh? Really! Where? Where? Where?" He started swinging his head around in exaggerated, eccentric, movements, I groaned and face palmed. This guy literally painted a bullseye on his head, no matter what he seemed to do.

"WATCH OUT!" Zoro's yell was immediately followed by a series of whizzing and popping noises, Luffy yelped and danced around on the sand trying to avoid the sudden barrage of ammunition.

"Yikes!" I grabbed Nami's hand and pulled her back to the boat, I already had enough of getting hit by stray projectiles for this lifetime.

The popping noises ended. Nami gripped my hand tighter, as we both looked nervously into the thick woods. In every movie or book's battle scene, having the high ground was an extreme advantage. Right now we lacked that advantage and I felt extremely exposed, even though I knew Usopp was mainly bluffing. _Hello again fear my old friend_

Bushes rustled at the tops of the cliffs, and I instinctively tensed, as pirate flags with a classic Jolly Roger popped out of the bushes one by one.

"Wow! This is Awesome!" Luffy shrieked in delight, flapping his arms at his sides in excitement.

"That idiot," Nami grumbled next to me from where we hid behind the boat, "This is not the time to be in awe!"

"HAHAHAHA!" Laughter rang through the air and drew our attention.

A wiry kid stood atop a cliff, his hair was dark and curly, a strange waffled patterned bandanna covered his head, he wore brown suspenders, with a blue cloth sash. A brown bag was slung over his shoulder, and a blue and white sweat band adorned his left arm which was crossed with the right over his chest.

"I am the great leader of the pirate crew that conquered this Village, Usopp!" He announced cockily from where he stood. "Everyone praises me, and calls me Captain Usopp!" He continued, and I giggled.

Hearing his ridiculous lying, made the fear go away, replacing it with humor at his over exaggerated tales.

"You better leave now or my 80 million men will crush you like bugs!" He finished, and I finally gave up holding back, erupting into full out laughter as Luffy's jaw dropped.

"INCREDIBLE!" He screeched, and I doubled over clutching my knees, _Oh my god this is just too much._

Nami sighed, while Zoro sweat dropped in disbelief at his reaction.

"It's a lie." Nami stated teasingly her face fixed into a confident smirk.

Usopp recoiled, and his next words sent me to the floor. "EH! She saw through it!"

"Oi Miko get a hold of yourself." Zoro said irritatedly, as Nami called out his next lie sending his crew of children running, while Luffy acted in disbelief that Usopp was not telling the truth. I just laughed even harder at that.

"Shut up!" Usopp yelled, and he drew his trademark green slingshot. I finally calmed down enough to appreciate the iconic scene that was about to occur.

"My talent with Pachinko rivals a pistol," he shouted his arm trembled with exertion at keeping the slingshot taut.

Luffy slowly placed his infamous straw hat back on his head his eyes shadowed by the shade. _It's coming, Eeek!_ internal fan girl flipped out while I remained just as serious as my crewmates. It worked better if I wasn't grinning like a fool, but I couldn't help but smirk a little.

"Now that you've drawn your weapon, are you willing to use it?" Luffy stared up at Usopp from under the brim of his hat, a dark and intimidating look shot out from beneath it.

 _This is so fucking cool,_ My smirk grew into a creepy grin, and I ignored it when Nami looked at me flinching away.

"That's not a tool to scare people with." Luffy continued.

I caught Zoro smirking as well, and he lightly chuckled as he clicked his sword slightly open once again.

"The person standing before you is a real pirate." Zoro finished off Luffy's speech, the two monsters of the crew stared up ominously at the trembling sniper.

Usopp stood there shaking, before collapsing down to his knees. "Wah, as expected a true pirate's speech is way cooler."

Zoro glanced at Luffy briefly, before they both started to laugh.

"Nah I stole that speech from someone I deeply respect, the pirate Shanks." Luffy smiled up at Usopp, who looked stunned by our crew's odd reaction.

"Eh, I still think you looked really cool captain!" I called out, and was greeted by one of Luffy's dazzling grins.

"Shishishi, Thanks Fae!"

"Oi don't encourage him," Nami muttered beside me, and I smiled even wider looking up at Usopp.

The more I looked at him, the more I saw Yassop. The two looked surprisingly similar except for their noses, and it was no wonder Luffy recognized him on the spot.

"Shanks! Red haired shanks, you know that great Pirate!?"

"Yeah." Luffy answered, and I felt an urge to say something.

"Oh so, I assume you know his father as well?" I smirked, ignoring the looks of surprise I got, wincing instead as Usopp fell down the rocky cliff in astonishment.

"How do you know Yassop Fae?" Luffy tilted his head and I resisted the urge to knock his hat off and ruffle his hair like a dog. (I'm a very touchy feely, lover of cuddles person, don't judge)

"Well the red-haired pirates, are quite famous Captain, anyone on the Grand Line knows the top members of that crew."

"I see." Luffy gave me a blank look with his answer.

"Eh, you both know my dad?" Usopp looked excited, and I smiled at his childlike wonder. Right behind the monster trio, my favorite was the goofy trio since Chopper was simply adorable, and Usopp was like a hilarious kid.

"Well Yassop's pretty famous where I come from." _It's not entirely a lie, even if he isn't a main character, he is related to one._

"Well I knew him personally," Luffy chimed in, "He'd never shut up about you, it was kind of annoying." Luffy stated cheerfully, and I'm pretty sure Nami flinched along with me at his inconsiderate comment.

Thankfully Usopp was too excited to hear about his Father to really comprehend the insult the rubber boy had just thrown at him. Ignoring me, he rushed over to Luffy and the two fell back into memories of the red hair pirates.

 **-o-**

"Well that was good!" I smiled, wiping at the corner of my mouth.

"Mrumpfh." Was the only reply I got, followed by the clattering sound of plates being hastily stacked. My grin stretched on my face painfully, as I attempted to avoid the horror to my left that was Luffy eating.

"Miko you look like you're about to die." Zoro looked at me, relinquishing the bottle of Sake in favor of conversation, and I felt my grin grow even wider.

"Really, I have no idea why." I propped my elbows on the table placing my head on my hands, giving the swordsman a wide creepy grin. Zoro remained emotionless, but he also avoided looking at the horror that was our captain.

Usopp had left us recently, with the promise that he would pay for everything (poor guy). I knew he'd gone up to visit Kaya, but I didn't want to scare the jumpy boy just yet with my "psychic abilities" so I was resigned to waiting to meet the girl when the vegetable trio showed up.

Currently, we were jammed into a tiny booth in the little restaurant, me and Luffy on one side, and Nami and Zoro on the other. I sat on the outside seat across from the orange haired navigator, while the two boys took the inside.

"I don't understand how he does that." I struck up conversation with the navigator who sat in front of me, visibly twitching in disgust. Perhaps Luffy sensed his approaching demise, because his rapid eating finally started to slow enough that I wasn't retching at the sight.

"Fae urmph.. Ho yo know..chomp Yasso, and Hanks?"

I took a second to puzzle out the meaning of the mumbled words, and composed myself to straighten out my story. This was it the moment of truth, I'd read enough fanfics about normal people dropping into cool worlds to know that eventually all their poorly planned cover up stories fell apart. I was prepared though, I'd written out my thoughts, organized them, based the lies as closely to my real life as possible, and covered all possible plot holes (upside of being a writer). Feeling safely secure with my fabricated story, I opened my mouth and replied.

"Well not knowing the name of a Yonko in the grand line is kind of stupid."

Zoro choked on his Sake and Nami visibly paled, but Luffy's reaction by far was the most hilarious. The straw hat boy spluttered the food he was chewing out covering the wall in disgusting bits of chewed up meat.

"Your fwom the Gwand Wine!" I flinched back as more food sprayed from the boy's mouth, as he jumped up in his exuberance.

"Yeah I'm from a pretty isolated and secretive island, but we know a little bit about the outside world." It was my backstory I'd established, Of course earth wasn't an island on the Grand line, but Raftel was, and according to Zale that's where I needed to go to get out of this world and back to my own. Also being from the Grandline, could explain my rather extensive knowledge, that I couldn't help but share.

"What's someone from the Grand line doing in the East blue?" Nami looked wary of me now, and I internally sighed. The stories about everyone from the Grand line being monstrous and dangerous beings, was slightly exaggerated in Nami's head. Which wasn't really true, there had been a large amount of normal strength civilians living in the Grand Line, even in the New World.

"Well that's the Million Beri question ain't it." I quirked my head to the side smirking at Nami's perturbed face. I could tell her the whole story now, but seeing how my fictional tale was based on truth the less times I brought up painful memories the better.

Thankfully before any of my crew could continue to question me the doors to the little restaurant flew open.

"The Usopp pirates are here!" three boys, wielding crudely shaped wooden swords stood shakily at the entrance. I giggled, they were really cute kids, even if their hairstyles were a bit strange.

"Hey you pirates!" the child with green hair shaped like an apple ran up to our booth followed by (who I assumed by their hairstyles) Carrot and Onion.

"What have you done with our captain?!" The two other boys echoed Apple's question, and I resisted the urge to pick one of them up and squeeze them to death. They were just such adorable looking children.

"Uwah, That food was great!" Luffy ignored the kids, as he patted his enormous stomach.

"F..fo.. food?" Onion shivered

"You don't think captain….." Carrot started, the kids suddenly looked very afraid. Nami giggled, and I joined in as Zoro rested his head on his propped up hand.

"Your Captain," Zoro evilly grinned at them "We ate him."

"AHHHHH ONIBABA!"

The kids paled and with matching horrified expressions they turned to look at me and Nami. Carrot, and Pepper looked at the orange head, while Onion looked at me. I wasn't to offended, and instead laughed along with the guys as Nami exploded at the children, scaring them even further.

"Don't tease them so much Cabbage head," I grinned reaching out to ruffle Onion's head. And stood up before bending down again to look at the terrified children.

"Get ba..back you witch." Carrot raised his little wooden sword.

"Nah uh, Psychic not a witch." I wiggled a finger in his face and was rewarded with some very confused looks.

I smiled and continued, "Don't worry Zoro was just teasing, your Captain is fine." The kids visibly relaxed, Apple sighing in relief.

 _They are so adorable!_ I squealed internally. I loved kids, and was seriously resisting the urge to pick up one of them in a big hug. "In fact it's about time we went and picked him up." I ruffled Onions head again, smiling at their shocked faces.

"Oh yeah Fae, I forgot you know stuff like this." Nami pondered out loud, her face slowly morphing into her sly "I'm going to rob you blind" face.

"Say, Fae?" Nami fluttered her eyelashes.

"Yes, Nami?" I mirrored the girl's cutesy voice.

"You want to give me a heads up on our possible future, and treasure?"

" **NO!"** Luffy's yell cut off my chance to answer.

Nami looked shocked, and I hid a snicker beneath my hand messing Carrot's hair with the other.

"What do you mean no? Luffy knowing the future could help us…"

"I don't wanna." Luffy pouted.

"Huh?" Nami looked slightly angry now, and surprisingly Luffy wasn't the one to answer her question.

"Just give up witch, Captain's not going to back down on this." Zoro donned his cool and serious face, that never failed to make me grin staring at it on screen or in real life.

"Knowing what's going to happen makes the whole adventure boring." Nami twitched as Luffy turned to look at me with stern eyes that were really more adorable than intimidating.

"Fae I order you not to say a thing!"

"Yes sir!" I saluted and winked at Onion who giggled a little.

"Just wait a second.."

"I don't really get precise visions anyways Nami, I'm not omnipotent." I shrugged as Nami seemed to calm down a little, before dropping the next bit of information.

"Well onwards to the mansion." Turning I led the group out of the bar leaving the stunned navigator behind.

"Mansion?! Guys?! I swear!"

I threw back my head and laughed seconds before Nami broke down into a session of cursing screaming and yelling.


	9. A Cat, a Ship, and a Sniper

**Hey Guys super happy I got this chapter up, It is officially the end of the Kuro arc or Usopp joins the crew arc (I'm to lazy to search up the official name). This chapter is super long which is why it took me so long to get this up, but I was determined to finish the arc in one chapter so here we are.**

 **I've recently been going back and editing the past chapters checking them for flaws, and they have improved(slightly) ;P**

 **I've reached 50 Favs! Thank you all so much for supporting my writing, it really means a lot to me! Please continue to like and review.**

 **To KitKat: Thanks for your review and glad you like the story, also thanks for your input and advice. I will probably just stick to writing fluffy scenes every so often, hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.**

* * *

"Nice house." Nami had calmed down considerably during the trip after I soothed her with whispered information about Kaya, the sweet tempered, "gullible" owner of the house (I'm a manipulative bitch and I'm proud of it).

"Sugoi!" Luffy yelled with joy.

"Captain Usopp should probably be here." Pepper announced proudly puffing out his chest, which prompted internal squeals about the adorableness of children.

Really my greatest dream for the longest time was having children, of course the idea of childbirth made me cringe. The pain, the uncomfortableness of it all, the only way out of it seemed to be getting a c-section like mom did. Minerva made fun of me for the fear of pain mocking it as half ass resolve, but it still was my dream, children were just adorable.

 _Maybe I can adopt?_

Continuing with scarily serious thoughts of a future no longer available to me in this world, I looked up at the big mansion. An iron gate connected to a stone wall allowed a small view of the white stone house behind it. The little parts visible of the land were well kept, and surprisingly european in style, with neatly trimmed hedges and a vibrant green lawn.

It wasn't the biggest or most impressive structure, if anything the mansion was probably on the less impressive side on the spectrum I had in comparison, but compared to the tiny village it was the very image of supreme wealth.

"Alright! Let's go!" I whipped my head towards Luffy, who's arms were already stretching to encompass the group.

 _Oh shit!_ Was my last coherent thought.

We rocketed forward with much screaming, I felt sheer terror, my eyes were squeezed tightly shut as I flew weightless through the air.

 **Boom!**

"Ooph" breath was forcefully pushed from my lungs as I landed on something warm and squishy, someone's elbow was jabbing into my side, and meanwhile Luffy laughed like a maniac.

"I'm going to kill him," Nami groaned as she attempted to get back up. Silently agreeing I did a onceover of the kids who's worst ailments seemed to be shock.

"Luffy, a warning next time, please." I begged rolling over on my knees to stand up. Shakily standing up Zoro growled under his breath about there not being a next time. _Poor guy, If memory serves he's the one that gets rocketed by Luffy the most._

 _Oh God no…_

"Hey Fae you alright?" Nami questioned.

"Ye... yeah just fine." I whimpered back. She didn't look to assured by the pathetic attempt of covering a grimace, instead she whipped around to yell at our captain.

"Luffy, look what you've done to Fae!"

I jumped up, "Nami it's fine, really!" Intercepting the dangerous orangette before she could pound Luffy into submission.

"I was just having some horrible precognition." I let myself sink into gloom, a purple cloud of doom over head and comical lines of foreboding surrounded me.

Nami kept on going, "Huh? Does something bad happen?"

"Just future aerial travel, courtesy of air rubber man." I replied gloomily.

Nami and Zoro paled, seconds ticked by in total silence. Zoro walked over to where I crouched joining the group of gloomy acceptance, while Nami still in denial (the pour soul) took it out on a confused Luffy.

 **Bonk! Smash! Bang!**

"Ow! Nami what the Hell! Stop!" Luffy's cries echoed around the open air, the trio of kids watched the spectacle with slightly horrified expressions.

"Hey stop!" A feeble delicate voice spoke up, and all heads moved to the source in synchronization.

A girl was leaning over the window sill of a room near the top of the mansion. Her blond hair barely grazing her pale shoulders, that were covered by a very nice casual dress. She was thin, and a shade to pale that gave away her unhealthy state.

"Who are you?" The voice was obviously weak, and it's volume was almost at the point of having to strain your ears.

"Don't worry about them Kaya." Another, familiar voice interrupted any possible response. "They're just some guys who are begging to join my crew." Usopp boasted.

"Who'd ever want to do that?" I nudged Nami as she grumbled under her breath.

"Liar." Luffy deadpanned, and I giggled at his serious face.

"Actually Miss Kaya, we've come to ask a favor of you." I sunk into a small curtsy, _Thank goodness for Cotillion classes._

"A favor, from me?" Her face changed into one of surprise.

Before I could reply a chill ran down my back, I shivered trying to ignore the strange feeling.

"What do you think you're doing here?" A slick cold voice trickled down my spine like a glass of cold water.

"Khladore." Kaya's words made me freeze.

 _Oh my God it's Kuro! Freaking knife fingers, thousand plans, shit excuse for human being Kuro!_

It was kind of pathetic the terror that shook my knees at that name. Kuro was one of the weaker villains the Straw hats faced, but all I could see were images of Kuro mercilissly shooting Merry, and swaying drunkenly with sharpened knife claws. I couldn't help it he was terrifying.

"You know trespassing is a serious crime?, I'd ask you all to please leave." His cold voice continued, unaware of my internal struggle.

The whole crew turned, along with me to stare at the well dressed man. He was a handsome well trimmed man, with an air of cold maturity. Gelled over dark green almost black hair and spectacles that flashed dangerously in the sunlight, his posture was formal firm and very professional.

"Oh Khladore, these people are act.."

"Not right now Miss Kaya, let me deal with the riffraff first." He cut off Kaya's sentence and turned to look at us with cold dead eyes.

 _Riff Raff how dare he!_ Internal rage spoke up, complaining about how we didn't look that bad. I was still wearing the clothes from Rika's mother, and they were still in decent condition all things considered. _Shut up, not the time, do not talk back to the crazy psychopathic murderer._ Ah thank goodness for rational side.

"All of you get out now, unless you have some business with me." Khladore shifted his glasses up with the palm of his hand.

"Alright." Luffy still smiling (he really sucked at reading situations) agreeably,  
"Can you help us get a ship?"

"Certainly not!"

"Damn." Luffy whined in disappointment.

"Hmph." Kuro turned his head in the universal sign of rich person disgust, and caught sight of Usopp perched in his tree.

"Usopp! What do you think you're doing here again, trying to steal the lady's money?" He sneered, "Like father like son I suppose."

 _Oh no he didn't._ Internal rage spewed curses at the man, while I chose the safer route and glared daggers.

"Khladore stop this at once!" Seemed like I wasn't the only one angry, Kaya leaned dangerously out the window her voice cracking with strain of use and anger.

"Careful Kaya." Usopp raised his hands preparing to catch the young lady. He was really a good guy caring about Kaya first before his own rage.

"I see no need to apologize to this scum Lady Kaya, but to be honest I pity you." Kuro scoffed at Usopp.

I fumed fists clenching, as Kuro continued to slander Yassop and insult Usopp for his heritage. This fucking bastard wasn't one to talk, he took the easy way out of being a pirate. If Usopp didn't punch him I was going to beat the slicked head of his to a pulp, screw the fact he murders for a living.

 **Smash**

 _Finally,_ I took delight in seeing Kuro's slightly bruised face, and listened to Usopp's angry yelling about his father. For all his faults, Usopp by this world's standards was a true man standing up for what he believed in even with his cowardly nature.

He took Kuro by his finely pressed white shirt. "Usopp stop!" Kaya shouted in desperation. I almost wanted to contradict Kaya and yell encouragement to him to continue, but I bit back my tongue.

With trembling hands Usopp let go. "Captain." Onion murmured arm outstretched toward the curly haired boy.

"Shh." I grabbed the boy's arm gently then wrapping my arms around him. "Don't get in the middle of this right now kid, You should be proud, your captain is proving himself as a great man." We stayed like that watching Usopp storm off, saying he'd never come back to the mansion.

Luffy fumed, eyes overshadowed with obvious rage. He turned on Kuro eyes blazing, and I chose that moment to set my plan into motion. Bending over to be level with the children, I caught their attention.

"Come on guys let's go." I whispered before standing up and grabbing Carrot and Onions hands. They didn't fight the contact curling their tiny fingers around mine leaving a gooey feeling in my heart.

Walking out of the open iron gates, The trio of boys following me like a faithful pack of dogs. Luffy, Zoro and Nami followed later, and I let the kids hands fall from my own.

"Onee-san, where are you going?" Carrot asked.

"I'm going to find your idiot Captain and boost his self esteem." Shooting a smile at the adorable trio, I headed down the path Usopp had taken.

"Wait Fae!" Luffy shouted racing to catch up.

"Yes Captain?"

"I'm coming to." He declared happily a smile on his face.

"Alright." Shrugging I turned back around following Luffy who broke into excited whoops and started to run.

"Don't worry about us we'll be fine!" I yelled over my shoulder at Zoro and Nami, before picking up the pace to keep up with the excitable straw hat boy.

 **-o-**

I was panting and hunched over by the time we reached Usopp. Being out of shape wasn't the issue, it was the high standards of this fucked up world. Luffy's rubber lungs or some shit, (hell maybe it was magic dust in the water) allowed him to run for inhuman amount of time and without even breaking a sweat. Me on the other hand, being normal flesh and blood, in a world of luxury and nothing more dangerous than a sports injury for the common human, was left clutching at the little air I had left forehead dripping with sweat. If we ever faced mildy poisonous gases count me in (Pollution apparently didn't exist in One piece) matching the speed of a devil fruit eater… yeah no.

As a result of attempting to suck oxygen back in, I missed the bulk of Luffy and Usopp's reassuring conversation. Barely catching bits and pieces of Usopp declaring his pride at being Yassop's son. One really had to admire how easily Luffy got people to open up to him. Originally I had it pinned down as anime logic that the main character has unbeatable people bonding skills, but in actuality Luffy was really just that likeable.

"Hey Isn't that the weird butler guy?" Finally catching my breath only to have it knocked out again (fuck you Kuro)

"Shh get down." I tackled the idiot captain before he could reveal our location to the scheming duo.

"Jango. I specifically ordered you to remain inconspicuous, so why did I find you sleeping on the road."

Kuro's voice was silky smooth and at an even tone but the anger was palpable in the air and it was impressive how composed Jango stayed. His goatee,(which i'd read somewhere was actually a mushroom stem) and hippie glasses gave him a young Elton John look with a creep scale of 50.

"Relax man, I've got the skills of a chameleon," He struck a pose, and I fought back the urge to gag, "I blend in."

 _He's not serious is he,_ Internally sweat dropping at the stupidity of that statement, I kept a hesitant hand on Luffy's back for safety. Last thing I needed was for the lovable idiot to give us a way with a stupid action.

The duo continued to discuss their plans and meanwhile I ran over the one in my mind. I had to let things play out as close to the story as possible because if Usopp didn't find his resolve we would never end up helping him. The most that the story could be changed was preventing him from being shot, but that was just a well timed tackle. My heart ached already thinking of the mental trauma that I couldn't save him from.

"Hey you bad guys leave the poor girl alone."

 _Damn it!_ I dove behind a nearby bush attempting to hide. I cursed myself, in the middle of my thought I had accidentally let go of the back of Luffy's vest and he had seized that opportunity. Luffy was going to be fine and Kuro would let Ussop go because no one would believe him, but if I was seen…. Haha yeah no.

Cowering in the bush though I felt slightly ashamed, even though it was the best course of action, hiding when my friends were in danger left a bad taste in my mouth.

"What are you three doing?"

 _Ah fucking hell!_

"I won't let you hurt the nice girl!" Luffy shouted petulantly.

Jango lifted up the metal ring on a string.

I was frozen in fear watching the metal ring swing and sway. _Oh my fucking god what the hell do I do?_

"And Sleep!" Crap I felt my eyelids droop as they struggled to fight off the hypnosis. Luffy swayed forward in the corner of my vision, and I reached to grab him without thinking. He was a wiry guy, but still weighed more than me, a slight 5'4 girl. Next thing I knew we were plummeting down a cliff. I felt warm arms wrap around me as my eyes closed, I fell asleep before even reaching the ground.

 **-o-**

"Fae!"

"Fae-neechan wake up!"

"Guh.." eyes flickered open slowly taking in light and the worried faces of my friends.

"What? Happened" Sitting up with Nami's help I put a hand to my aching head.

"I don't know." Nami's voice was laced with hints of worry, "Usopp ran by us and he wouldn't say anything about what happened to your two."

 _Two_

The ground beneath me shifted, and I realized just how warm and squishy the ground was.

"Ack!" I jumped off of Luffy. "Oh god Luffy are you okay."

He popped up yellow hat on his head looking like a meerkat. "Nah Fae I'm fine, Shishishi."

 _Oh right he's made of rubber._

"Whump!"

"Ooph", the wind knocked out of my lungs and sudden force sent me stumbling back. "Fae-neechan!" I caught glimpse off purple hair.

"Woah Carrot, easy there." giggling I wrapped my arms around the child feeling warmth inside and out with my first hug in this new world. My face melted into smiles, I really need more cuddling in this world.

"I was really worried," The adorable kid sniffled, "Captain looked super upset I thought something happened to you."

I felt touched and all gooey inside and tightened my hold around the darling child, Wrapped in my bubble of joy ignoring the possible weird looks I was getting from the rest of the crew a sudden realization hit me like an anvil in the gut. My face probably displayed my emotions, as Zoro instantly tensed.

"Fae what is it." I didn't bother answering instead releasing Carrot gently yet hurriedly.

"Nee-chan?"

"Carrot stay here with Zoro and Nami." Without waiting for a response I turned and ran off ignoring Nami's calls.

Surroundings blurred as I ignored the burning in my thighs and lungs. How could I be so stupid, letting myself get hypnotized!? At this rate I would never accomplish anything on my list, Usopp was minutes away from being shot and having his spirit crushed by the one person he cared about more than anything, and I'd let it all happen even though I knew the future.

The entrance of Kaya's mansion came into view, the gates by some stroke of luck had been left cracked open, I seized that opportunity to pick up my pace. Shoving the metal open with a screech I ran toward the tree that led right to Kaya's room.

 _There!_

Nearby the tree Usopp was tugging on a sobbing Kaya's arm as she feebly fought to be free. Merry had already left the house noticing his mistress plight he ran at the two screaming at Usopp to unhand her.

The sound of villagers didn't help the chaos of the whole seen and it would have classified as hilariously hysterical if I didn't understand the seriousness of the situation.

I didn't know where to start, when to jump in, everything was moving so fast. Then I saw it, a flash of metal in the setting sunlight.

"Usopp!" I shrieked darting forward towards the commotion. Jumping I tackled the sniper to the ground, the motion breaking his hold on Kaya.

 **Bang!**

The sound of a gunshot rang out over the clamor as I laid over Usopp. I scrambled up as the villagers drew closer dragging him up along with me.

"Fae? You're alive?!" He gasped out.

"No time to explain, we've got to run." I responded to his question dragging him after me with angry villagers in pursuit.

"But Kaya…"

"Usopp," I paused grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "She's not going to believe you." His eyes started to tear up.

I felt a pang in my heart, but ignored it dragging the crushed sniper behind me again.

"Then wha..what am I supposed to do." His voice was close to sounding like a sob.

"I don't know Usopp, it's your choice," I kept my eyes forward running in the direction I'd came. "All I can tell you is that you're the only one who knows the truth, now it's up to you to determine how you use that."

Silence was the only answer to my response and I found it gratifying. I'm not sure I could have come up with better answers.

 **-0-**

 _Ughh Fuck!_ Iternally moaning in pain I laid sprawled out on the dirt road. _Screw anime logic!_ I screamed in my head as my lungs struggled to take in air. Around me were my crew, who me and Usopp had finally run into after what felt like forever. I was to tired to make any comments and thankfully Usopp took control of the situation.

"Luffy you're alive too?!" I would have giggled if any air was left in my lungs, and I wasn't still thoroughly depressed by my earlier conversation with Usopp. The group started to talk and I zoned out focusing on ignoring the burning pain in my legs and lungs. I finally was able to push myself into a sitting position in time to hear onions shocked question.

"Captain you lied?!"

Usopp started to laugh exaggeratedly "Yup! I kind of just wanted to get back at Kuro, so I lied"

"Liar." My voice sounded raspy from the dryness of my throat. Everyone turned to look at me, Luffy giving me an oddly serious look.

Usopp smiled at me brightly. "What do you mean liar, I'm trying to tell the…"

"No." I interupted my voice going back to normal as saliva wetted my throat. "You're just trying to keep the kids safe."

Usopp grew angry now, "No I'm telling the truth!" He started yelling, "I'm just a pathetic coward lying to get back at someone!"

"No you're not." I gave the angry teen a sad smile, "trying to save this village without them knowing proves you aren't"

 **POV Usopp**

My mouth dropped open stunned, the girl who'd left me speechless looking up from where she sat with a warm smile on her face. I felt tears well up in the corners of my eyes, dammit he wasn't about to get emotional about some stupid words. It'd been so long since someone believed in me, even Kaya knew his stories were nothing but stories, no one had bothered to tell me that I was anything more than a liar and a coward. Now here sat this strange girl, who'd known his father's name and saved him from getting shot by the angry villagers, without Fae's words from earlier he might not have found the resolve he had now.

"How'd you know." Anger dissolved, I stared at the stranger who seemed to know everything.

She met my eyes with golden brown eyes of her own, looking into them were like looking into vats of warm honey they pulled you in with their infinite depths with a slow sticky sweetness.

"I have a gift that came with me into this world." Her smile grew sad as she pushed herself up to stand. She continued, "I guess you could call it a second sight."

"Gugh," I made a spluttering noise, "You mean you can see the future?!"

The three kids gasped as Fae shrugged, "I guess you could call it that," she put a finger to her chin in a delicate motion of thinking.

'Wahhh!" My brain felt like it was cracking, how was it possible to see the future, this person was crazy she must be insane!

"Anyways that's not important now." She waved her hand dismissively as more incoherent noises left my mouth.

"Oi Miko, I think you need to explain all of this before you break his brain." The green swordsman jabbed his thumb at me a bored expression on his face. I nodded enthusiastically in agreement

She sighed. "Look I'd love to go through a tutorial on all of my psychic wonderfulness, but right now is the wrong time," taking a breath she continued, "All you need to know now is that Kuro will attack this island, and if you don't do anything to stop them they will kill Kaya."

He gulped, the seriousness in the girl's face made him flinch.

"No way!" Apple shouted a look of righteous fury overtook his face. "We won't let that scum get away with this, the Usopp pirates will stop Kuro!"

"Yeah!" Onion and Carrot chorused raising their fists in the air.

Fear gripped his stomach, no he couldn't let the kids get hurt. They were his only friends, his precious crewmates, they were way to young to get involved with this.

"No!" The panic he felt making him raise his voice, the three turned to stare at him in surprise.

"Don't worry." Fae's steady voice interrupted his shaking. Her tone commanded respect even though it remained at a normal level. A hush fell over the group as the aura she gave off compelled them to listen.

"I have a plan."

She smirked.

 **-o-**

 **Fae POV**

I stood in front of a pair of mansion gates. I can't believe I'm about to do this!

The moon had become visible with the disapearance of the sun, and I realized I'd been awake for a full day now. Strangely that didn't seem to faze me that much, but it was probably because of the rushing adrenaline.

"Nee-chan are you sure you don't want us to come with you?" Onion looked up at me worriedly, the rest of the veggie trio nodding their heads in agreement.

I smiled once again touched by the innocence of children. I kneeled down to the kids level wrapping them in a huddle. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, remember you have the hardest job after this, I can handle being in a little danger for a while." I smiled as the trio blushed in embarassment.

I waved them off into a corner of bushes far away from the entrance and made my way into the Home of Kaya once again. My heart raced in my ears as I crept along the path that led to the tree besides Kaya's window. This is such a dumb idea! I whined internally as I shimmied up the tree shivering at what the plan actually entailed.

 **Flashback**

 _"I have a plan." I spoke exuding an aura of confidence that didn't exist within me._

 _I grimaced the plan I spoke off was basically the back up for the back up plan I'd drafted up in my little notebook (I'm an easily stressed person, it's genetic sue me)._

 _"Did you know this was going to happen?" Nami looked at me suspiciously as I nervously giggled in response._

 _"Well anyways," I glanced at Nami who looked very angry. "I have a plan, but it doesn't mean I'm going to use it." I shifted my eyes to look at Usopp_

 _He looked conflicted, but he didn't get angry like before._

 _"Ha ha ha!" He threw back his head leading out painfully fake laughter._

 _"Of course I don't need your plan, I'm Usopp maker of a thousand plans," His smile was heartbreaking, "I've made plans that have toppled kingdoms! I've captured amazing treasures, and built castles stone by stone."_

 _"And.. and this is my home." I felt tears rise in my eyes at Usopp's obvious struggle_

 _"I don't care what they think of me, I'll defend them from pirates all by myself!" His voice was shaking with raw emotion. "I'll make sure that tomorrow, the things I told them remain a lie!"_

 _"Alright!" Luffy yelled filling the silence that followed Usopp's declaration. He had a goofy smile on his face which I couldn't help but mirror as he turned towards me. "Fae what's the plan?"_

 _"Huh?" Usopp's eyes widened in question._

 _"Alright Captain." I gave a slight salute laughing as I did._

 _"Wait what are you guys doing?" Usopp continued in hysterical confusion._

 _"Well isn't it obvious." Zoro smirked._

 _"We're going to help." Nami finished._

 _I squealed internally at the fangirl worthy moment. Ignoring Usopp who had started to tear up from the words I shared my plan._

 _"First I'm going to head to Kaya's mansion with the kids."_

 _The veggie trio perked up at their mentioning._

 _"I'll get her out of the mansion, and then the kids can lead her to safety."_

 _"Why?" Usopp questioned, and I winced at the visible pain in his eyes. Kaya really did a number on him._

 _"She shouldn't have to know if we can stop the attack." He continued._

 _I took a deep_ _breath steeling myself for what I was about to say._

 _"Kuro is not a patient man," I ignored the sharp intake of breath from Nami, "While he won't kill her tonight, he will make a damaging move that would be better to shield her from._

 _Understanding without me saying I'd seen it in a vision Luffy nodded and we continued ironing out the plan, and this time I made sure the ambush was set up on the right side._

 **End Flashback**

I pulled myself up on the branch with an ooph. Steeling myself I reached out and lightly tapped the window. Every shift in the wind, every subtle noise had me flinching, I saw eerie shadows in the corner of my eyes. _Wahhhh!_ I cried in my head, I was so afraid Kuro was going to find me I could barely think straight.

 **Creak.**

"Eep!" I let out a small squeak and tensed up as the window opened without warning. I was greeted to the sight of a weary looking Kaya who'd obviously been crying.

"You're not Usopp." She stated blearily.

 _No shit_ I deadpanned mentally. Shaking myself out of my stupor I found my voice.

"Uh hello Kaya-san, I'm not sure you remember me, but I was part of the pirate crew that came by earlier today." I gave a small smile in attempt to appear friendly.

Recognition dawned on her features. "Oh hello there Pirate-san," I smiled a little at the name. "Might I ask what your doing here so late at night?" She looked tired and even though her manners were perfect she was visibly showing signs of annoyance.

"Well I'm here to show you something." I grimaced at the wording.

"Could I come in?" I continued.

Kaya nodded and opened the window wider, I almost scolded her for being so trusting of a complete stranger, _Motherly instincts, check_. I climbed through the window wincing at the ungraceful noises I made clambering in.

"So what is it you wish to show me?" Kaya asked curiously.

"It has to do with Usopp." I stared intently at Kaya gauging her reaction. She flinched at the name.

"Oh." Kaya spoke softly.

"Kaya-san," She looked up at me sadly, "Do you really believe that Usopp is that petty." Her lip trembled, and I felt kind of bad making her relive this, it was like kicking a wounded puppy.

"I...I.." She stuttered.

"Usopp really cares about you," I continued ignoring her wide eyes, "He spends a lot of his time here telling you stories trying to make you feel better, because he cares about you Kaya." I smiled gently at her. "Some part of you must realize that, because of his care for you, Usopp would never make a lie about Khladore like that, knowing it'd make you sad."

"I know." Kaya was crying now.

I winced, oops was really trying hard to avoid that. I reached out a hand patting awkwardly on her shoulder as she sobbed.

"B.. if he…'s not lying… than Khlad..ore, He wouldn't.. Ussop's..wr..wrong" Her words started to become incoherent.

"Shh, Listen," I interrupted the sobbing. "I'm telling you this now because I want you to be prepared for any possible outcome, don't think about who's right or wrong right now just listen to what I say."

I preceded to tell Kaya how she should go to the North entrance of the island, with the Veggie trio. If Usopp was wrong, he'd come apoligize to her, if not…. It fell on the kids shoulders to keep her safe. After some more crying and awkward hugs, I helped Kaya put on a traveling cloak and led her down the tree to where the three kids lied in wait. Before they could scamper off though I pulled them aside.

"You remember the plan right." I said worriedly.

"Yeah, we got this!" Apple whisper cheered.

"Alright," I sighed, "J..just be careful you three." I pulled the trio into a group hug, praying that they'd be okay.

"Don't worry nee-chan, we'll be fine!" Onion smiled reassuringly as I wiped away at my own tears (Damn myself for being an emotional sap) I released them with a final squeeze watching as they raced of toward the northern side of Gecko island with Kaya in tow.

I took off racing through the town in search for a doctor. If I remembered right, Merry was going to need one. I eventually found a doctor in a small hut marked with a sketchy looking sign. After a lot of yelling and bribery of money that Usopp was kind enough to lend, the doctor finally agreed to check out the mansion. He gave me an odd look as I immediately ran out after his hesitant confirmation, but I couldn't care less, I had more urgent things on my mind as I raced for the northern side of the island.

 **-o-**

It was utter chaos when I arrived, the whole hill was littered with defeated pirates covered in oil slick. Most of them had telltale signs of being hit by small explosives, blunt objects, and sliced by swords. The few that were still functional had decided to retreat dragging their knocked out comrades, back to a half destroyed ship.

I observed the chaos looking for my crewmates, _Huh?_.

Apparently my intervention had really changed a lot, seeing how Luffy was already fighting Kuro and Zoro had just about disposed of the Meowban twins.

"Shink"

"Fae duck!" I barely processed the command to caught up in the fights in front of me before letting myself fall to the floor. I felt a slight breeze over my head, and my eyes widened Holy Crap! Is that Jango's chakram?!

I quickly scrambled up snapping open the tessen fan just in time to deflect a second blade. I thanked god that it was made out of special paper and metal so that it didn't tear on contact with the sharp weapon.

"Screech," The two weapons glanced across each other in a shower of sparks.

"Exploding star!" A yell echoed from the distance and a small explosion smacked into the figure swinging blades at me.

"Ack!" Jango growled in frustration backing away from me, a good look at him revealed that he was slightly singed and sporting bruises, that looked like they'd come from….

"Smack!"

"Argh! You bitch!"

Nami's bo staff, I finished giving the scene in front of me a deadpan stare. It looked like Usopp and Nami had teamed up to finish off the hypnotist, and right now Jango looked extremely pissed off as Nami brutally whacked at him with her staff and Usopp fired pachinko as distractions. It was actually quite awing especially as a fangirl to watch my crew fight, and I was caught between helping or just cheering them all along with a starstruck expression.

The decision was taken away from me when Nami let out a shriek. She had lost her footing tripping on a rock, Jango grinned evily his funky sunglasses gleaming in a way only an anime characters could. I charged fan closed so I could swing it at full speed without catching in the air. Jango was facing away from me leaving him with no idea of my approaching attack.

"Yah!" I yelled, as I approached I raised the weapon up and swiftly brought it down into Jango's skull as hard as I could.

 **CRACK**

The sound seemed to resonant through the clearing and I managed to connect eyes with a stunned looking Nami. Jango collapsed to the floor and I was left standing over him clutching the tessen. Well that was anticlimatic…

"Hehe," I dropped my pose and rubbed the back of my head as Nami and Usopp gave me deadpan stares. "Not going to lie, that really boosts my confidence." I grinned at the two of them, as Nami just sighed in exasperation.

The three of us then chose a nice comfy seat to watch our crewmates finish, Zoro soon joining us prompted me to fuss over his multiple wounds, This inhuman monster probably bled pints of blood, but of course he was fine. We dissolved into comfortable chatter and bickering finally joined by Luffy who had finished Kuro off with a wonderful heartfelt monologue, I repeated the fussing process, which was followed by a tearful reunion for Usopp and Kaya with many apoligies and gooey stuff that made my heart melt. I also made sure to give the kids a big hug and try my best not to break out into tears. Surrounded by my crew giggling, laughing, and just talking, I couldn't stop grinning the whole time.

 **-o-**

 _I think I'm going to pass out from joy!_ Inner fangirl squealed inside her room and this time I silently agreed, wearing a large goofy grin as I stared in awe and happiness, at a small caravel with a sheep head as the mast.

Oh my fucking god I am witnessing a historic part of strawhat history. It occured to me that this was probably a mundane thing to freak out about seeing how I'd met the actual crew, and joined the crew, but still old habits die hard.

"I designed it myself, a little outdated but she's a good ship."

I smiled and made a silent promise that I'd find a way to prolong Merry's life at least until Franky could fix her. I wasn't going to let her burn up at the end of the whole Enies Lobby fiasco.

"Thanks mister!" Luffy cheered grinning at Kaya and Merry.

"No problem it was the least we could do." Kaya grinned turning to me.

"Thank you so much for all you've done especially you Fae." She continued

"Wha..WHat? Me?" I spluttered, I'd barely fought at all if anything she should thank Luffy and Zoro for saving her life.

"Yes Miss, I believe I owe you a thanks as well." Still stunned I looked at Merry who was giving me a very embarassing bow.

"Dr. Nasubi informed me that his presence at the mansion was due to you," I blinked, oh yeah I thought remembering the stubborn old doctor, I guess I did save his life. "And for that I am eternally indebted to you." Merry continued with no idea off my mental relization.

"We both are," Kaya joined her Butler in a bow.

"Aw geez, I really didn't do much," I sheepishly rubbed at the back of my neck, "I'm just glad you two are okay." I finished with a smile.

"HELP ME!" All of us looked up at the noise watching as Usopp strapped to an overly large backpack rolled down the hill.

I watched with a smile as Zoro and Luffy stopped Usopp with a foot to the face before breaking out into giggles.

"Hehehehe!" I ignored the strange look from Nami and endearing smile from Kaya.

When I had control over my laughter I tugged at Luffy and Zoro's arm. "C'mon guys help me load up the Merry!" I cheerfully led the two a way giving a knowing wink to Kaya who blushed before turning to talk to Usopp.

I grinned watching the two talk as I directed Luffy and Zoro in storing the food, my help was appreciated by Nami who gave me a thankful look for reining in the two goofballs. I was willing to go with the flow for most things, but I get hungry real fast and food was something I definetly took seriously. During the stocking of supplies I also made sure we had quite a bit of lemons, since I remembered some idiotic bounty hunters in need of some later on.

I took time to help Nami move the stuff from our old boat to Merry and I plopped my backpack down on a bed in the women's quarter making a mental note to do a full inventory later.

"Onee-chan!" three shouts, interupted me from stocking the ship. I grinned wide as three adorable children ran up to me smiles on their face, I gave a pleading look at Zoro who was nearby.

He sighed, "Fine say your goodbyes." I grinned handing him a box of food, before turning back to the adorable children.

"Hey you three what are you doing here?" I questioned kneeling down so I was on their height level.

Onion shuffled his feet nervously before looking up at me with heartbreakingly teary eyes. That went straight into my heart like an arrow.

"We just wanted to say goodbye."

And now I was definetily tearing up.

"We're going to miss you Onee-chan." Carrot spoke up voice shaking.

Cue the sobbing.

We were all pretty much a mess and after many tearful hugs I was dragged away by an annoyed Nami who said I was slacking. I smiled though as I waved goodbye, only knowing those kids for a short time and I was already so attached, damn my mushy feelings.

After that little episode I briefly shared a few words and a surprising hug with Kaya who told me I had become her inspiration for getting stronger, apparently she had been impressed by my speech of trusting Usopp and I felt quite embarassed at her praise. I liked the girl though, and I wished her the best, and really hoped that one day she would be as strong as I knew she could be.

On the ship fighting back the occasional sniffle I rested my head on a white painted railing.

"Geez Miko, your pathetic." Zoro spoke, and from his voice I knew he wasn't saying it to be mean, which somehow made me feel worse.

"What does that even mean?" I asked halfheartedly shifting my head to look over at the swordsman who was leaning back to the railing, next to me.

"Huh?"

"Miko, what does that mean?" I elaborated tiredly.

Zoro smirked remaining silent, oddly pleased with my lack of knowledge.

"You suck." I stuck out my tongue when it became apparent he wasn't going to answer. He ignored the action, which only made me more resolved to google the term later.

"Hey You guys, you take care too!" Usopp's call broke me out of my stalemate with the first mate. I looked over lazily rolling my head along the railing still to depressed to lift it up. Usopp was standing across from Kaya a smile on his face "Let's meet again sometime!" he finished.

I grinned as excitement overrode my depression and I sat up lifting my head from merry rails. No way in hell was I missing a crew joining scene.

"Why?" Luffy asked an adorable look of childish confusion on his face.

"Huh 'Why?' Man your antisocial." Usopp sighed "I'm going to be a pirate too, so we'll meet on the high seas eventually."

I giggled a little earning a strange look from Zoro (It was slightly worrying that I'd gotten used to those). Zoro shook off his weirded out expression looking over at Usopp, pointing at the ship's deck

"What're you talkin about? Get on already." He stated with his slightly annoyed, "how're are you so stupid" voice.

"Huh?"

"We're friends now aren't we?" Luffy asked with a straight face.

I giggled again smiling at Usopp's stunned face. Before Usopp broke into a grin that matched my own.

"I get to be Captain right?" Usopp jumped pumping his fist in the air.

"Don't be dumb I'm the Captain!"

I joined my crew and our new member in a fit of contagious laughing.


	10. The Strawhat Storyteller

**Hi everyone!**

 **Just wanted to start out by apologizing for the possible errors as I am posting this chapter from my phone since I'm in Paris for vacation.**

 **I'm chilling and enjoying the awesome food,in preparation for getting surgery to fix my ACL next week (not looking forward to that).**

 **Neko Neko no Mi: I'm really glad that you like my story! I hope the upcoming Nami arc lives up to your expectations. Thank you so much for taking your time for writing a review it really means a lot to me.**

 **Queen Mo-Freakin: thank you for your pairing choices, I'mdefinitely goingto think about a pairing between one of them and Fae. Good job finding the meaning of Zoro's nicknamefor Fae, I thought it was pretty sly of me to put that in there.**

 **havarti2: lol nice video game reference**

 **PortgasDTatze: Thank you so much for your support and I'm really glad you like Fae and her weapon choice (I'm thinking of giving her another one).**

 **Thank you to everyone who liked and reviewed my story, it really means a lot to me.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

* * *

"Alright let's do this," I clapped my hands together in determination and turned to survey the strewed out contents of my backpack.

Nami was on deck supervising the whole navigation of the ship and after I ended up tangling the lines and totally disengaging the sail she had sent me back inside to prevent further damage.

I took the free time and used it to set up my side of the room. In the women's quarters we lacked basic decorations which I'm sure Nami would add later, but currently we only had two twin sized beds, and basic looking nightstands.

Sitting on the bed, I had claimed my own, I was now taking inventory of everything I had from my world and what Sylvie from Cloud town had given me. Seeing how I'd been coming from school, I had a very strange assortment of things. I had three binders, one for History, Math, and Science, I also had a folder filled with chinese lessons and worksheets, my writing notebook, a swell water bottle, a pencil case with two mechanical pencils, an eraser, white out, and a couple pens, 1000 Beri, a small first aid kit (partially used), headphones, and my phone.

I had played around with my phone for a while and discovered that I did have internet, but only for select things. I could play my spotify songs, google basic ship terminology, watch youtube videos on how to use tessen fans, but I couldn't contact messaging, phone calls, email, facebook, snapchat, instagram, all forms of social media and contact to the other world had somehow been shut off.

On one hand it was freeing not to worry about sending snapchat streaks every night and morning (those were annoying), and on the other it meant my friends and family still had no idea where I was, and I had no idea what was happening to them. I shook my head violently back and forth. _Nope, Nope not going to think about that now, they're fine you're still fine everything is going to be fine._

I picked up the phone again and stared intently at the glowing screen. Everything looked the same on the device, I had my anime wallpaper, all my game apps accounted for, and even the contacts for all my friends were intact, but there was something strange now about the device. I squinted, in the top right hand corner where the battery bar was located instead of being green and displaying the battery percent, the bar was filled with a glowing iridescent rainbow color and the number beside the bar was gone.

That was strange.

Well I try not to think about the deep and vast weirdness of the universe, I had a half functional phone with an unlimited battery, it was better than nothing and I was happy with that.

I looked back down at the stuff on my bed. The binders full of homework and useless worksheets were probably things I could toss, but somehow I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Grabbing the school materials I stood up and walked over to pull out the drawer of my nightstand. It was made of a light colored wood and had two decent sized drawers to store things in.

The top drawer was already filled with my clothes from back home, but the bottom had remained empty. With a gentle scraping sound I pulled out the bottom drawer, and placed the binders safely away.

I stood up and packed the rest of the stuff back into my backpack so I could take it with me wherever I went. I had just finished putting away the first aid kit when the door burst open.

Nami marched in an irritated frown on her face. I tracked her motions around the room nervously as she muttered darkly under her breath.

"Everything alright?" I asked tensed up to avoid a possible explosion from the navigator.

"Oh nothing!" Her chipper tone and overly cheerful face was even more terrifying than her blatant yelling. "Nothings wrong I've just discovered I'm on a boat with a bunch of idiots who don't even know how to cook a fucking meal!"

I cowered in the corner as each of her words got louder and louder.

"And now after making sure these idiots don't have us chasing the sun because warm means south, I have to cook food and I'm not even going to be paid for it!" She threw her hands up in the air full out yelling at this point.

"Oh." I said weakly.

"Yes oh." Her eyes glinted dangerously, she continued grumbling and made her way towards the door.

Quickly I stood up, "I'm sorry." I bowed low to Nami.

"I'm not very good with navigation or ships. And I'm sorry you had to deal with that." I kept my head low and bit my lip. Poor Nami, I felt bad, sure sometimes the Straw Hats antics were fun,but sometimes they were a little much and my little knowledge of seafaring was a huge burden on the crew.

I heard a sigh over my head. "It's fine Fae I was just a little tired." I looked back up at Nami who was wearing a softer smile. My heart went out to her, Nami really was such a good person who'd gotten a horrible lot in life. I should be making the burden she carries easier to shoulder not heap on my own weight.

"Then stay here and rest." I stood up fully and pushed Nami gently away from the door to the beds.

"Huh?" She looked a little flustered by the motion and I sent her a smile.

"I'll take care of dinner and I'll call you when it's done."

She looked at me with an odd expression before giving me a relieved smile. "Alright." She sat down on her own bed and I turned around and left.

 **-o-**

"Okay, where do I start?" I spoke aloud glancing over the range of ingredients in front of me.

Basic cooking skills were something I'd learned from my father. My dad had always enjoyed eating and making good food, a love I inherited from him. Years of helping him in the kitchen and observing his preparation had left me with slightly above average cooking abilities. I'd always been proud of my ability that topped even Minerva's lexicon of perfectness, and I was glad that I wouldn't be completely useless on this ship until I learned how to operate it.

I set my mind on making pasta with a side dish of broccoli, Asian style. It was the first dish I'd ever made by myself, and seeing how I had all the ingredients it would be easy to do.

I set up the kitchen washing and rinsing and onions and a carrots for the sauce while setting a large pot to a boil, I paused and decided to set up two more boiling pots, knowing Luffy one would definitely not be enough.

The hours faded by fast as I made several batches of broccoli and three pots of Spaghetti.

I wiped a hand across my brow collecting sweat. Taking a deep breath I inhaled the smell of spices and oil. I set the table before stepping outside of the little kitchen, waking Nami first before calling in the boys.

"You made all this." Nami gasped staring at the food laid out.

"Yeah." I smiled, "It's not anything super fancy, but it's edible."

"Food!" Luffy rocketed forward reaching for spaghetti.

The rest of us quickly joined eating at a frantic pace and fending off rubbery limbs to keep up with Luffy's horrifying appetite.

"Fae.. mrmph what are you.. Talking abnout this ish delishus." Usopp spoke inbetween mouthfuls of pasta and attempting to fend off Luffy's grabbing hands.

"Yeah it's not half bad Miko." Zoro grunted eating his own serving.

"Maybe you can be the chef, if you can cook like this." Nami smiled over a piece of broccoli.

I shifted in my seat embarassedly, "No way I don't' know anything about proper nutrition beyond basics, and I'd never be able to plan out meals." I crossed my arms into an X to emphasize my point.

"Relax, relax I was kidding." Nami waved a hand dismissively, "I was just complimenting your cooking."

"Yeah Fae this is super good." Luffy smiled, "But don't worry you're not the cook, you have a different role."

"I get a position?"

"What you just thought you were henchman number one." Zoro snorted.

 _Weell kind of,_ I didn't say that out loud though choosing to remain silent.

"No way!" Luffy stood up shaking the small table and shouted, "Fae isn't a henchman, she's our Storyteller."

The table fell silent.

"A storyteller?" I breathed out in disbelief

"Yeah, you're great at telling them!" Luffy grinned brightly "I really liked your story about that Perry Johnson guy."

I giggled laughing at the irony.

"Well sure captain, didn't realise storyteller was a necessary pirate position, thought I was just going to be designated psychic."

"Sure it is," surprisingly it was Usopp who answered, "It's an important job to keep spirits up and entertain the crew. I myself was a great storyteller." He puffed out his chest.

I smiled, "I don't doubt it."

"You're not just a storyteller though." Nami added, "I've seen all the notebooks you carry, I'm making sure you take care of the log book from now on. You're not just a storyteller, you're a story writer"

"And you're still a psychic, but you're also the storyteller." Luffy nodded seriously to emphasize his logic.

I felt a warm bubbly feeling in my chest and my eyes started to water, I rubbed at them with the back of my hand.

"Oi, Miko you're not crying are you?" Zoro looked very uncomfortable with the sight of a crying girl.

"Of course I am," I blubbered, "You guys are just so…"

"Shishishi, Don't worry about it Fae, eat your food." Luffy shot me one of his famous grins and dug back into the food prompting the rest of the crew to join in Nami sent me a small genuine smile before turning back to her meal and I wiped away furiously at my tears.

"Aye aye captain." I said grinning digging back into the food.

 **-o-**

I shifted under the covers, restlessly. After the dinner and my official assignment on the crew, I'd told them all a story as we sat out on deck eating fruit I'd sliced up for desert. This time going for one of my own original stories about a girl born with magical eyes, it had ended with a yawn from Luffy who looked tired out of his mind. We'd all retired for the night after that, but for some reason I just couldn't fall asleep.

 _Buzz, Buzz._

I jolted upright and scrambled out of my bed, I'd know that sound anywhere. Searching around blindly in the dark, quietly as to not wake Nami, I found the source of the noise.

Pulling my phone out I squinted at the glowing screen

 **Unrecognized Number: Meet me on deck**

I stared blinking at the message, standing up I stumbled in the dark heading for the exit. Normally I would never do something that came out of a horror movie like this, but I had a sneaking suspicion who the sender was. Just in case though, I grabbed my Tessen from the nightstand before leaving.

The wooden planks creaked under my feet as I walked on deck. The ocean surrounding me was a deep midnight blue lit up in a patch that reflected the moon. A silhouette stood behind Merry's figurehead.

"What are you doing here?" I sighed loosening my grip on my weapon.

The figure turned, the handsome bishounen features, white hair, and red eyes illuminated by the pale moonlight,

"Aww, can't a guy just visit the girl he's interested in." Zale smirked

I flushed, "interested?" I squeaked out.

He snickered and I flushed harder this time in anger "Relax, relax not like that." He motioned me forward with an arm.

"I'm here to fulfill that promise I made you at Orange town."

"What?" I racked my brain trying to remember the details of our past conversation.

"Don't tell me you forgot already?"

"Uhhh" I smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of my head as I walked towards him.

"I'm going to teach you how to use that." He pointed at the fan in my hand

The conversation came back to me, "really?!" I started to grow excited there was only so much one could learn from YouTube and I'd always been more of a doer learner than a visual or auditory learner. I wasn't weirded out by the fact he was going to teach me either, as I said earlier I didn't hate him for bringing him here. Perhaps talking to him I could find out why he'd done that in the first place, and maybe he could send me home.

"What you think I just made that up to confuse you?"

I scowled as he smirked in a way that made him look inhumanly attractive.

"Okay to start in going to run you through some basic forms and then.."

I bowed low cutting him off mid speech.

"What are you doing?"

"Thank you for teaching me how to do this." I ignored his question head still bowed.

It was silent in front of me for a few seconds and I glanced up to see if Zale was okay. His face was twisted into an odd expression I couldn't identify.

"Don't think anything of it." He waved dismissively the odd look still on his face.

"I'm serious," I stood straight up this time, "I'm stuck in this really dangerous world and I need to know how to protect myself not only for me, but so I don't end up hindering my crew." I smiled, seems like ages ago I'd last thoughtof my crewas  
anime characters.

I'd lived with them in a tight space and they'd become treasured friends to me, bonds I'd always wanted to have but never knew I was missing. I couldn't risk changing their happy ending for my weaknesses. _Oh god I sound like a cheesy fictional character._

"You really are something."

"Huh?" I asked unable to make out the words Zale had muttered, distracted by my minor existential crisis.

"Nothing, nothing just warning you I'm a tough teacher think you're up for the task." He chuckled darkly red eyes glinting in the dim light.

I held up my fan and got into a simple stance as an answer.

"Yes Sensei!"

 **-o-**

I rolled out of bed groaning in pain. I felt my muscles tense and clench as familiar soreness set in. I felt completely wiped out even bough I'd just woken up. Zale had not been kidding about being a harsh teacher and had drilled me over and over again in one kata (which I'd thought was only a Naruto term) until I'd been able to perform it with few mistakes. He promised that next time I would have to actually fight him. After glancing over his muscular figure and blushing every shade of red possible  
I'd realized how much pain was in store for the future. _Oh Joy…_

I yawned and walked out on deck entering the kitchen to make some breakfast, I made a couple plates of eggs and bacon with great difficulty due to my arms refusal to raise over my head. I walked out the finished meal to my crewmates scattered around the ship. Reaching Luffy last I leaned over his shoulder to see what the captain was working on.

"It's Done!" Luffy jumped up clutching the black cloth he'd been painting on.

Even in my tired exhausted and dazed state I had enough energy to smile in preparation for another iconic scene.

"Really?" I played along setting down the plate of food on a barrel nearby. "What is it?"

"It's our pirate flag." Luffy spread his arms out displaying the crude jolly roger painted on the flag, "With Usopp on our crew we now have five people, so we need our own mark."

I looked around and grinned at Zoro's face

"That's our mark?" He asked in disbelief.

"Nice right? What you think?" Luffy wore a large toothy smile.

"Well a pirate mark is supposed to strike terror," Zoro said contemplatively.

"I feel terror, but more terror of your talent." Nami chimed in with a straight face.

I gave Luffy a thumbs up, "Nice try captain, it's better than I could do."

That earned a few disbelieving looks.

I walked back into the kitchen as Usopp professed his talent at graffiti, I dug through storage and made sure that lemons were easily accessible placing a box of them on the kitchen table before returning outside.

"Eh it's not bad." I heard Nami say, as I walked down the stairs.

I walked over to where the crew was gathered peering over Zoro's shoulder. I smiled widely and let out a little squeak of joy darting over to give Usopp a hug.

"This is awesome," I squealed releasing my grip on Usopp who looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry, I like hugs." I apologized sheepishly, feeling a little embarrassed, I missed all the cuddling I got back home from my little brother.

"It's fine." Usopp said grinning awkwardly, "I just wasn't ready for it."

"Well you deserve it this is wonderful." I motioned at the flag making Usopp break out into another tall tale about his painting masterpieces.

I grinned and watched as Usopp was ordered to paint the mark on the sail, getting ready mentally for the storm that was brewing up ahead.


	11. Lemons to cure all Ails

**Hi everyone! Im super sorry I haven't written in awhile and apologize in advance that it's probably going to be that way for a while.**

 **Life has gotten pretty hectic, I recently got my surgery to replace my torn ACL and I was preoccupied with returning to walking and catching up in school. Also Finals and standardized testing our approaching and leave little time for me to write.**

 **Adelaide's Anagram:** I'm really glad you like my story, and Fable. At this point I don't know if I'll write my story all the way to Raftel, it really depends on how long Oda makes his story, but I will definitely try to make it to Dressrosa. I appreciate the pairing suggestions, and you do bring up a good point: that romance doesn't really have a place on the crew. Who knows there are a ton of eligible bachelors off crew that I hadn't even thought of. Thank you though again for your support and I hope I don't let you down.

 **Jojo1760:** Thank you for your support, and I'm happy you like Zale. I promise to do my best writing in the future, so I don't let you down. Your words are super encouraging!

 **LastOrder:** Thanks for supporting my idea behind the unlimited battery I was a little worried it was cheesy.

 **Guest:** Thank you so much it makes me super happy that you think of my writing so highly. Thank you for supporting Fable as well, I tried my hardest not to make her a Mary Sue. And as always views on pairings are greatly appreciated so thank your for sharing yours.

 **loop2:** Thank you for the cover idea. And you brought up some very good points, I hope you enjoy it when I finally write Fae's reveal.

 **It made me super happy reading all the reviews you guys left me and** **I'm proud to have passed the 100 followers mark, Thank you all!**

* * *

I was sitting down back leant against the entrance of the kitchen. I was writing a story idea down in my little notebook outlining a basic plot and characters occasionally glancing up to watch Luffy and Usopp play with a cannon in the corner of my eye. It was a soothing pastime that filled in the boredom that was created from spending days on the sea.

 **Boom!**

The sound made me look up from my writing.

"Nice shot" I whistled, watching as the reef in the distance exploded.

"So cool Usopp!" Luffy cheered.

"Of course it was," Usopp boasted.

I grinned and watched Luffy instantly assign Usopp as the sniper, I was proud that my internal joy and fangirling had lessened than earlier instances (exposure therapy really does work).

Amusement lost after the show, I turned back to my notebook, flipping absentmindedly through my book. Shifting past story ideas I found the page I was looking for. Again my nervous habit of making lists had appeared, and I'd documented possible solutions and goals for this arc.

Most though we're focused on Nami, undeniably the two of us girls had grown close. We joked together and her dry wit and easily provoked nature grew on me. I saw Nami as a close friend, surprisingly right up there on the list with Minerva a thought that both saddened and comforted me.

I felt awful about the choice that Nami would have to make in the upcoming storyline, and had resolved to fix the situation the best that I could. There were at least three pages of planned out notes of possible solutions, most were reliant on getting the crew to beat up Arlong earlier than in the actual storyline. The main problem with that answer was Nami didn't want our help.

She had a solution to her problem and believed she could handle it on her own. Nami would never have asked for Luffy's help in the anime if she hadn't been completely helpless watching her village march off to fight and die at Arlong's hand.

I had to somehow find a way to get Nami to accept our help, without having her suffer as much as she did to reach that point. Creative answers had sprouted from my hyperactive imagination and midnight inspirations. One of the more confusing ideas I'd come up with, god knows when, was to "lock her in a tower like rapunzel" and involved a sea king, an angry cow, and a year's supply of ketchup to beat up the marines kick Arlongs ass, then we'd climb up the tower, wake Nami up, and knock her over the head hard enough she forgets about the fishmen."

I was seriously starting to fear for my mental health.

"Come out you damn pirates!" An angry voice called out, I took that as a cue to put the notebook away.

"Huh who are you?" Luffy asked.

Ignoring him Johnny swung his sword to take out one of Merry's railings. "Are you wannabe pirates trying to kill my partner!" He screamed as the sword swung out.

Thankfully I'd been prepared for the outburst jumping from my seat at his arrival, I took the strike with my tessen instead. I grunted using both my arms to stop the attack, straining against the stronger man who looked surprise by my presence.

"Hey don't attack my Storyteller!" Luffy yelled, wrapping his legs around Johnny he launched him backwards into one of Merry's walls as I landed with a thump on the lower level.

"Lost by a hair," the bounty hunter's mutter made me laugh even as my heart raced from the sudden adrenaline rush.

"Hey if it isn't Johnny," I looked up at Zoro who was standing above the deck just exiting the kitchen.

"Big Bro Zoro!" Johnny yelled scrambling upright. "Why are you on a pirate ship?"

"Is something wrong Yosaku isn't with you?" Zoro wore a look of genuine worry, which was telltale to his true feelings about the bounty hunting duo.

I started moving as Johnny led Zoro to the side of Merry, where his boat holding his partner resided. I climbed the stairs and entered the kitchen grabbing the box of lemons. I started to cut and squeeze the yellow fruits into a glass. Looking up and glancing out the window to see that Yosaku had been brought on board.

Usopp and Luffy had their heads bowed in apology, as I opened the door carrying the glass and a couple more lemons, just in case, awkwardly in my arms. I leaned over Zoro's shoulders as Nami inspected Yosaku.

"What do you think you're doing! if you mock my partner's death you'll pay for it!" Johnny yelled grabbing her arm and spraying spit in her face.

"Woah, woah, woah please calm down." I shoved the extra lemons into Zoro's arms, who made a strangled noise of confusion fumbling with the fruit.

Johnny turned to look at me as Nami gave me a pleading look to get rid of the "annoying" man. I smiled, "Don't worry this should fix him right up." I held up the glass of lemon juice leaning over to pour it into the wounded man's mouth.

"What are you giving him?" Johnny asked nervously, and Zoro had moved up as well brow furrowed in question.

I glanced at both of them, "He has scurvy, I'm giving him some lemon juice to restore his vitamin C." I backed away with the empty glass just in time as Yosaku shot up.

I watched with a grin and a laugh as the bounty hunters started to circle around each other pausing to give an introduction.

"Thank you very much miss for restoring me." Yosaku bowed and took my hand after his little display. He kissed the back of my hand as Johnny grabbed my other tears of gratitude streaming down his face.

"Oh… it was nothing, I just..." I floundered around shooting Nami a pleading look of my own, which she answered with a smirk. _That bitch!_ I mentally fumed shooting her a glare at her betrayal.

"You moved so fast, and with such accuracy." Yosaku joined his partner in tears, "If you hadn't been here I would have died."

"I just had a vision, that's why I knew what to do." I tried to tug away from the two who were now hugging my arms.

"Oh that explains it," Usopp hit a fist into his open hand.

"Wow Fae is so cool!" Luffy grinned laughing.

"Thanks," I grinned awkwardly, "A little help now please." I whined pitifully as the bounty hunters started chanting about my awesomeness, and calling me Big Sis.

"Okay enough you two." Zoro grabbed the back of the duo's shirt pulling them back away from me, I gave a sigh of relief.

"But this just emphasizes the importance of proper nutrition." Nami spoke seriously as she observed the surrounding craziness, while I glared at her for abandoning me with the bounty hunting duo. "On the sea, lack of proper nutrition, can be fatal."

"I know then, let's get a cook!" Luffy announced with a smile, "Than we can eat yummy meat whenever we want."

"Not really what I meant." Nami muttered, "But getting a cook is a good idea."

"Well if you guys are looking for a cook, than I have the perfect place." Johnny announced breaking free of Zoro's grasp, "If you want good food out here on the sea, then you need to head to the Sea Restaurant, the Baratie."

"Alright then," Nami grinned before setting the crew to work, the ship sailed smoothly forward, and excitedly I moved to the front of the ship barely making out in the distance an odd looking restaurant, an image I'd never forget anywhere.

 **-o-**

"Ah Luffy don't" I yelled a little to late as I watched the scene unfold in front of me in dismay. True to the original storyline, we had run into a very unfriendly Iron fist fullbody, but seeing no way out of the confrontation I resolved to react to the cannonball situation in my own way.

Unfortunately that hadn't worked out as well as I planned….

I cursed my own mental focus and the bounty hunting duo (who were very distracting as they attempted to use me as a human shield) as I watched the redirected cannonball fly off toward the Baratie.

"Ah Luffy look what you did!" Usopp wailed in distress, and the crew dissolved into chaos.

 **Time Skip**

We'd pulled up to the floating restaurant and waited on board the Merry as Luffy insisted he had to apologize. Nami had countered with insisting the rest of us stayed put out of fear of retaliation from the staff. Personally I saw no danger, but I wasn't about to mention that to the enraged orangette, who'd just finished shaking Luffy like rag doll for destroying the Baratie.

It explained why I was currently sitting on the railing of the Merry swinging my legs beneath me in utter boredom.

"Ugh!" I groaned leaning backwards dangerously earning a raised eyebrow from a lounging Zoro.

"I'm so bored, please let me do something," I whined

Zoro sighed "Don't even think about it Miko, or the witch will have your head."

I pouted a little, "That's easy for you to say, you never do anything but sit there and grow grass on your head."

"Oi what'd you say." A tick mark appeared on his head and I dissolved into laughter. I found great amusement in teasing Zoro, it was surprising how comfortable I'd become around the stoic swordsman. He was the first straw hat I had met and even though I'd probably never stop fangirling over his character, he was shaping up to be a very good friend.

"You heard what I said, grass ball." my grin grew at his affronted look.

Zoro grunted turning away, I sighed in disappointment. Seemed Zoro had figured out if he didn't react he wasn't any fun to tease. Turning back to the restaurant in front I pondered my choices, fiddling with my tessen.

Realizing boredom was my worst enemy, and I was actually quite interested to see the Baratie, I pushed off hopping down from the railing to the deck of the boat landing with an ungraceful thud.

"Hey what do you think you're doing?" Zoro hissed.

I waved him off as he started to stand, "I'm just going to go explore a little."

"Hey Miko, you shouldn't.."

I ignored him giving him one last cheeky grin before strolling around the deck. I laughed out loud as I heard the colorful curses spewed from the swordsman's mouth.

I wandered the deck looking out into the sea, marveling again at the sight. I was never going to get used to the pristine look of the ocean at all times, being a city girl had deprived me of this experience.

I wasn't too sure how I felt about the ocean though, sure it was beautiful to look at, but i'd always been afraid of the creatures that lurked beneath the waters, the ocean had always made me feel small insignificant and alone which left an unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Sighing out loud, I turned a corner and promptly tripped over something on the floor.

 **Bang**

I hit the floor hard and I winced as shooting pain shot up through my body.

"Oh shit frickity duckity that hurts." I cursed curling myself up, waiting for the pain to dull into a throb like it always did (taking my fair share of basketball dives the pain wasn't something entirely new).

"Watch where you're going you wench!" I heard a snarl from behind me and scrambled up in shock. I turned timidly holding the tessen defensively only to be greeted with one of the most pitiful sights I'd seen.

The thing I had tripped over was a man, he was severely injured and obviously malnourished from the sunkenness and pallor of his skin. He was bleeding form some sort of wound on his head, and I saw injuries new and old all over his body.

My mothering instincts kicked in almost immediately, and I instantly fell back to my knees.

"Oh gosh," I fretted, "you really need a doctor," I reached out a hand to move back the headband he wore.

"Don't touch me," He growled smacking my hand away before I could reach him and I flinched back from the dark look in his bag lined eyes. _Wait…_ I nearly fell backwards when I connected the name to the man's appearance, his wounds had distracted me from realizing, that this was Gin, second in command of Don Krieg's crew!

I swallowed down the fear that came along with the realization and steeled myself. Gin was no stranger to violence and could probably kill me even in his weakened state, but I knew that Gin wasn't a horrible guy and he just looked so pathetic right now. My bleeding heart of course just required I had to help him.

I muttered a few curse words under my breath, before making my decision "Wait here, and under no circumstance will you move." I spoke sternly to the man before turning around and running to the boat for medical supplies.

 **-o-**

 **Sanji POV**

Sanji carried the plate of food with years of practiced ease, his face schooled into a mask of expressionless while underneath his emotions boiled. He was angry; at the old man, at that sorry excuse for a chef Patty. Why couldn't the damn fools just get it into their head that he deserved to be here, that he had earned his place.

Still fuming he pushed the restaurant door open to find the pirate from earlier. He was surprisingly upright now, and seemingly occupied by something as he stared at the deck to his right with an odd expression.

Sanji identified the signs of malnourishment from the man and he flinched internally, memories of that little rock island filling his head. Lips clenched, even more than before, around his cigarette he set the plate of food in front of the man drawing his attention, as he took a seat back against the ship's rails.

He looked at the food, at Sanji and back to the food again, Sanji could see desire in the man's eyes, but still the pirate held back.

"I don't want your pity." The man turned away with a scowl which only served to flare Sanji's emotions again. He took in a deep breath of his cigarette to calm himself down, the smoke escaping in an exaggerated breath from his lips.

"Just eat it, anyone who's hungry is a customer to me."

"I can't pay for it," Gin turned away from the food as a loud growl escaped from his stomach.

Sanji sighed internally, at the man's foolish pride. "The vast ocean can be very cruel, its awful not to have any food or water," Memories flashed painfully in Sanji's mind as he continued to speak. "I don't care if you want to die with dignity," He wore a faint smile on his lips now as his eyes met the pirates, "But if you eat up now, you'll be able to look forward to a new tomorrow."

The other man swallowed before slowly reaching for the plate, giving Sanji one more glance he turned and started to eat like there with no abandon.

Sanji heard the crying before he heard the words,

"This is so delicious," The man sobbed through bites, "I thought I was a goner."

As he listened to the man's mumblings over the food Sanji let his face break into a smile, this is what he lived for. As a cook it was his job to make sure everyone was fed, that no one ever felt the pains of starvation.

Cheerful laughter rung above his head and caused him to look up at the source. There stood a boy no older looking than himself, wearing a red vest and yellow straw hat on his head. His face was sporting one of the widest smiles Sanji had ever seen.

"Hey aren't you lucky, If he hadn't given you something to eat you'd be a goner." The boy called out to the pirate in a cheerful voice

"Hey Mr. Cook, Care to join us? Sanji just continued to stare unsure of what the boy was asking.

"You'll be the chef on our pirate crew!"

"Huh," Sanji replied, but before he could ask the boy what he meant he heard the sound of footsteps around the corner.

The sound of labored breathing followed it, as a figure rounded the corner.

Sanji felt his heart stop as he was left staring at the goddess. She was beautiful, dark brown almost black hair pulled up into an elegant ponytail leaving her gorgeous face free to view. She had a rounded face and soft features with elegant yet not sharp cheekbones and a faint blush adorning her sun kissed cheeks. Her lips a delightful shade of peach, parted as she breathed in little breaths that were adorable and endearing. She definitely had a womanly shape if not so sharply pronounced, but the most eye dropping feature were her warm brown eyes, light enough that they looked like sweet golden honey.

"I'm sorry it took so long but.." She started, adjusting the bandages and first aid equipment in her arms. She looked up and froze, heavenly lips parted in surprise as she was greeted by the odd sight in front of her. And Sanji was lost to the wonders of womankind.

* * *

 **Ah! I'm so sorry for this cliffhanger. I just didn't have a whole lot of time to write this and I didn't want to wait until after school to post. I apoligize and promise the chapter next time will be longer.**

 **Thanks for reading, and please like and review.**


	12. The Sea Chef and The Fairy

**Sorry It's been so long since I've posted.** **School has started again and with AP World this year I've given up hope of having any more free time. My stress level is through the roof and I have been reading so many textbook pages I can't read anymore without seeing the words "Civilization" and "Agriculture".**

 **If you haven't seen from some of the earlier chapters I'm attempting to edit my story so some minor things have changed here and** **there.**

 **Lightsbane1905:** Lol, classic Sanji

 **grace-adalyn:** Thank you so much! It really makes my day to know that my character is coming out right, and I'm so happy you like my writing.

 **6BlueSweaters:** I'm glad you like Fae, and about your thought it might be closer to my plans for Fae than you'd think ;).

 **princess-snow510:** Thank you for your review!

 **FIREmizuchi:** I'm so glad you do. Thank you for your review!

 **Kaiya Azure:** I hope this chapter answers your question, and thank you for reviewing.

 **mk0008:** Yup, that's Sanji alright.

 **Adelaide's Anagram:** Once again thank you so much for your review! I'm really glad the relationships I've been writing into the story haven't been to sparse and unreasonable, and I appreciate that you take the time to tell me that. Also thank you for pointing out that awkward wording in last chapter, I went back and reread it and you're right it doesn't make sense. I have pretty bad grammar and I do tend to make mistakes like that, so thank you for pointing it out so I can fix it. About Minerva, I'm not really sure if she'll ever show up in the One piece world, I was definitely planning on doing some scenes back with Fable's family and friends, so Minerva will at least show up in the story again. It is a possibility though that she'll make it into One Piece, but if she does it won't be for a while.

 **Thank you everyone for reviewing, I love hearing all your feedback and please if you see mistakes please point them out to me so I can fix them. I won't get offended, trust me you're doing me a big favor.**

* * *

 **POV Fae**

I stood there a little dumbstruck taking in the scene. _Sanji was here_ and I felt like slapping myself for forgetting that this was the scene when Sanji had fed Gin.

"Ooo Fae watcha doing here?"

I glanced up, and was greeted to the sight of Luffy waving from a railing on top.

"Uh Hey Luffy, sorry I just came here to…."

"Oh heavenly Godess!" A cry rang out before I could finish my explanation. I looked up in alarm just in time to witness Sanji turn into a whirlwind of fast moving legs and heart filled eyes. I barely supressed a shiver down my back at the frightingly inhuman sight.

"I have been blessed out here in the vast emptiness of the blue seas to set eyes on you." He knelt down on one knee and grabbed my hand nearly throwing my precarious stack of bandages of balance.

"Could someone as fair as you grace me with the knowledge of your name."

I blushed a little, even if there was so much ridiculousness in Sanji's statement, I'd never been flirted with so openly before.

"Um.. Fable Sun, but just call me Fae." I stuttered out still in shock.

"Ah what a beautiful name for a beautiful woman." Sanji lightly kissed the top of my hand, and my uncomfortableness level raised a bit further.

"Yeah, Uh nice to meet you.." I squirmed around eyes darting around. Trust me as a friend of Minerva I was used to seeing guys chase girls with insincere pick up lines, that made me gag. I was just unused to pickup lines being used on me.

I made eye contact with Gin, who already looked a lot better after one meal, my eyes darted to his visible bruises. Mind shifting from flustered teenager to mothering mode, I went into action.

"Excuse me Sanji-san." I spoke curtly and pulled my hand free gently, before turning and crouching before Gin.

"Of course my lovely fairy, I will wait for you forever." This time I didn't blush, but I gave Sanji a small smile.

Focus back on the pirate, I ignored the injured man's stunned look and scanned his body. Placing down the bandages and medical supplies beside me I selected what I needed.

"Fair warning, I'm going to tend to your wounds." I spoke firmly prepared to shoot down any rejections as I already reached forward to an injured spot.

Unlike Zoro, Gin was surprisingly quiet which I credited it to him already swallowing his pride after accepting Sanji's food. He was decorated with scary looking bruises that turned his dark skin shades of purples and sickly blue. There were obvious bleeding wounds which I took care off, but beyond the basic first aid there wasn't much more I could do.

In the background I heard Luffy jump down from the top deck to join us. He provided a distraction for Sanji who had been hovering over my shoulder, and the two sat down to discuss pirate stuff.

"Why'd you attack this restraunt?" I heard Sanji ask as my fingers wrapped cream colored bandages around Gin's leg.

"That was self defense!" Luffy explained

"Huh?" Sanji said obvious disbelief in his voice.

I looked up slightly meeting Gin's shadowed eyes, I offered a brief smile even though his dead stare scared the hell out of me. His eyes softened and he nodded before looking out across the ocean. The corners of my mouth pulled up into a genuine grin.

"Hey join us?" I paused in my work at Luffy's question captured my attention.

As expected Sanji shot the offer down "I refuse,"

Luffy answered with a yell

"NO! I refuse!"

"Huh." Sanji startled at the boy's change in behaviour. "What do you refuse?"

"I refuse your refusal," Luffy stated a petulant look on his face.

I turned back to Gin with an amused smile on my face that earned a questioning look from Gin.

The two continued to argue to the point where they were now screaming in each others faces, Sanji threatening Luffy's hat sparking a violent reaction from the captain. Pondering the pros and cons of intervening I was saved when Gin interrupted.

"Kid you say you're a pirate?"

"Yeah!" Luffy chirped.

"So what are you aiming for?" Gin's eyes took on an even more haunted look.

"Obviously as a pirate I'm aiming for the One piece and heading for the Grand line!" Luffy replied with a signature grin.

Gin froze and my fingers tightened unconsciously around the bandages I was wrapping around his injury.

"Don't move," I scolded looking back down before I could see his expression.

A pause filled the air before he continued on, "You don't' want to do that," He spoke in a low voice, "You seem like a nice guy so I'm going to warn you, The Grand line is the one place you should avoid."

"The Grand line is only a small part of a large Ocean it's better to start out there," Gin's serious expression accentuated his bagged eyes.

"Oh you know about the Grand Line?" Luffy grinned widely in answer.

"No.. I-I don't know anything or understand that ocean at all." Gin's voice stuttered and his eyes glassed over with what could only be traumatic memories. He started to tremble in terror, and I resisted the urge to pat the man on the shoulder, as I tied up the last bandage.

I tuned out as Sanji and Luffy discussed Krieg. Gin brought up a good point, The Grand line was dangerous and seeing the grown man tremble in front of me whole body dripping with sweat arose terror within me far worse than I could ever experience watching through a computer screen.

"Hey Fae!" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I looked up to questioning eyes.

"You hear what I said?" Luffy's question caused guilt to rise at my unawareness.

"Sorry Lu, I zoned out a little." I smiled sheepishly.

Luffy smiled, "Ah it's Okay, you're already from the Grand Line so I guess this doesn't interest you."

Still unaware of the earlier topic, my question was cut off by choking noises from our other companions.

"You're from the Grand Line!" Gin's eyes bulged, as Sanji continued to gasp like a beached fish.

"Uh yeah," I nervously covered my own lie, "I lived there."

And finally Sanji recovered.

"WHAT YOUR PART OF THIS MONKEY'S CREW?!"

 **-o-**

"So long then," Gin stood in a small rowboat, a smile of gratitude on his face. After dealing with the backlash of surprise at my origins I quickly gave them the rough outline that somehow I'd been separated from my homeland and now wished to return. Things had calmed down especially when Sanji decided to call me his beautiful Fugu which apparently meant pufferfish, since it was a delicacy to eat but highly dangerous and poisonous if prepared wrong. I was expectedly not very happy with the nickname, but not knowing Sanji very well I refrained from hitting him.

"I'm still going to the Grand Line." Perched on the Baratie rails Luffy informed Gin of his plans.

"Well I guess that's your choice," Gin smiled far more relaxed than his earlier reaction. " I just wanted to warn you."

I smiled resting my arms on the rails, "Have a safe journey!"

"Thank you," Gin looked me in the eye conveying thanks for more than just the well wishing, before shifting his gaze to Sanji. "And thank you Sanji, I will never forget your kindness!"

"Yeah no problem," Sanji grinned around his cigarette, "You're welcome to come back anytime."

"Hey chore boy!" I looked behind me at the loud yell. On the second floor of the Baratie stood Chef Zeff with his enormous white hat, and trademarked peg leg.

"Eeeh!" Luffy visibly startled at the call.

I took the time to investigate the strange man as Sanji dumped Gin's dirty dishes in the sea.

Zeff was an intimidating man for sure with his gruff face and mustache. His eyes twinkled with something akin to fondness as Sanji delivered his conclusion of not being blamed without evidence.

"Oi Sanji, Chore boy! Get back to work!" Zeff yelled as Gin sailed out the sea. Sanji and Luffy turned to the chef right as I turned back towards Gin. Waving a hand in farewell, I smiled when he returned the gesture. _Now all I have to do is prepare for when he brings Don Krieg and his crew here, and threatens our lives._

I chuckled grimly at my own thoughts realizing that my reaction was far to muted from what a response should be to an impending death threat.

"Ah my beautiful and dangerous fairy, do you care to join us inside!" Sanji whirled around me with heart eyes, and I resisted the urge to giggle seeing how his actions were less on the embarrassing side and more humorous now.

"Oh actually.."

I suddenly froze as I remembered what happened when I'd raced back to the ship for the first aid kit. Nami had been summoned by the forces of bad luck, and nearly chewed my ear off for running around the ship. Seeing how I'd been in a little bit of a hurry I kind of blew her off….

"Sorry Sanji," I patted his arm depression rolling off me in waves, "Maybe after I get myself killed."

I walked off after that, _I'm so dead!_ I wailed internally.

 **-o-**

"I can't believe that idiot," Nami fumed as we sat at a table for four.

"I don't understand why he didn't just blame the marines, he's too honest for his own good."

"I'm more worried about how long we have to stay here." Usopp joined in as Zoro took a swig from a sake bottle.

I sighed placing my head down on the table, still recovering from the tongue lashing I'd gotten from the navigator I lacked basic function to participate in the conversation. Seriously I could now see why half the crew lived in constant fear of Nami.

"Well as long as we're here, we should order something." Nami's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

Usopp smiled "That sounds, good I'm starving!"

"Yeah food sounds nice." I seconded perking up in my seat at the idea of being able to try Sanji's legendary food.

"Sure." Zoro grunted, and Nami smiled before flagging down a chef.

I glanced down briefly at the menu Nami handed me and placed my order. The menu was obviously seafood based, although there were some turf options available. My dad had always told me that local food was always the best thing to get, so I placed an order for some dish using fish I'd never heard of before.

It was only a few seconds afterwards that I heard a shocked yell.

"Ahh! Guys what are you doing!" Luffy stormed over. I covered my mouth quickly to resist from breaking out laughing, as the crew started to tease Luffy.

To distract myself I focused on the food that had been placed in front of me. In no way was I a picky eater and while thankfully exercise kept me from being overweight I very much enjoyed eating. I took a small bite of the food and lost myself to bliss; it was delicious, the flavors just right and everything perfectly balanced.

Stuck in my small corner of heaven I tuned my surroundings out and dug in with gusto. I had polished off my plate feeling stuffed to the brim, when I focused back in on the current conversation. I was just in time to watch as Zoro made Luffy drink water with his booger in it. I cringed at the scene, _Ugh that's really gross!_

"Ah my beautiful Fable-chan!" a familiar voice drew my attention. Sanji in a whirl of hearts sped over to our table, bending down quickly to take and kiss my hand.

"Ah hello Sanji-san." I said with a small smile, no longer entirely flustered by his forward advances.

"It warms my frozen heart to see you once again my precious fairy, every hour of your parting was pain to my soul." I giggled a little at the ridiculous use of language.

"It's good to see you to." I smiled.

He returned the smile and turned slightly to my left catching sight of Nami, I watched as he fawned over the orangette who looked very pleased with the situation. After watching her con him into a free meal I excused myself and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air.

The boards of the ship creaked as I stepped, and the smell of salt filled the air. It was quiet out on the ocean and for miles all you could see were endless rolling waves. I watched the calming waves a little longer before letting out a sigh and turning back to rejoin my friends.

 **-o-**

Another downside of living in an anime: time skips don't occur. I spent the next two days in complete and utter boredom playing on my phone for a bit and writing in my journal soon grew old. My only brief repireves of boredom were harsh weapons training which left me with a lot more aches and pains then positive outcomes.

Out of sheer necessity to do something I decided to join Luffy and help around the Baratie. The idea of working as a waitress had always seemed somewhat appealing to my movie and fiction oriented mind; It turned out a lot less fantastical as I imagined. My inability to carry more than two plates of food at a time was disheartening, but thankfully the cooks didn't seem to mind especially since unlike me Luffy's food never even made it to the table.

I couldn't really remember when Gin was supposed to return with Don Krieg so now all I could do was play the waiting game. Recently Nami had started to act closed off and although I couldn't quite remember why I had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with Arlong. Which is why on the third night I went to go visit her.

Standing outside her door, I hesitated. What if talking to Nami now only made it worse, what if I screwed something. I paced back and forth running scenarios in my head. I'd attempted to plan out the conversation last night, but when I'd sat down to write my mind went blank.

 _Don't be a baby Fae, just do it._ I berated myself scowling before taking a deep breath, I raised a hand to knock on the door.

"Come in," I heard the faint call from inside following my knock and I steeled myself, opening the door.

Nami looked up from her desk that was covered in maps. She had a pair of reading glasses on and intense frown on her face which turned into a smile as brown eyes met mine. I returned her smile with a shaky one of my own.

"Hey Fae what can I do for you?" She paused in her writing putting down the pencil she'd been using.

I stood in front of the door shifting nervously from one foot to the other, "Well..uh." _Come on just spit it out_ I mentally screamed as I continued to stand there making unintelligible noises.

"You okay Fae because…"

"I know you're planning to leave!" I blurted out cutting off Nami's sentence. Her eyes widened and they filled with emotion fear, wariness, and sadness before going blank.

She looked away from my own and I took hesitant steps into the room towards my friend stopping when she flinched away.

I bit my lip but my resolve didn't waver, "It's okay you know.." my voice was quiet, like I was speaking to an animal in an attempt to not scare it away, "I understand, It's something you have to do." I looked up and made eye contact with chocolate eyes, attempting to convey all of my emotion to her from that single stare.

Her lip trembled before she gave me a weak smile, "Thank you." It was a shaky gesture, but it meant the world to me. A weight felt like it'd been lifted of my shoulders and I nodded, no more words needed to be said. Turning around I mechanically headed back to the door but my hand hesitated before the handle. I looked back over my shoulder at the orange head who was looking down at her desk on what looked like the verge of tears.

"Nami." She looked up at my call.

"Come back safe." I didn't wait to hear her reply, simply turning away and walking back into the night.


End file.
